Interview with Dr. Justin Barone
According to the National Chicken Council, Americans consume 86.3 pounds of chicken a year. To get that much chicken, you have to have a lot of birds who have a lot of feathers. Over four billion pounds a year, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Justin Barone has discovered a way to utilize the massive amount of feather and create a new type of plastic. We here at Pieces were lucky enough to interview him concerning this exciting, new development.
How did you discover this process?
The process relies on traditional plastic processing methods. Up until our technology was developed, most researchers would dissolve feathers in acids or bases, which was not a very environmentally friendly thing to do. We hypothesized that we could convert the feathers to plastic with a little heat and pressure without acids, bases, or any solvents if we could get the feathers wet enough to "reduce" them or break their sulfur-sulfur bonds. Our hypothesis turned out to be correct and we just use a little bit of water to do it although you could use as much as you want. Feathers are made of the protein keratin and are held together and have their unique properties because of sulfur-sulfur bonds. This is the same reason that rubber tires are so tough. When you smell burnt hair, you are smelling sulfur because hair is also made of keratin. Nature chooses keratin to be on the outside of animals to protect them so it is tough, strong, and lightweight. It is a great material to use to make plastics. When we are done processing the plastic, the sulfur-sulfur bonds reform and the properties of the keratin return.
Why is it significant?
You can process bio-based waste products into cheap, useful, biodegradable plastics. The amount of heat and pressure we use is less than half of what is required to process petroleum-based plastics with similar properties. The process does not rely on solvents so we have done much better than our predecessors. So the process is cheap and easy.
When you discovered it, what applications did you think it would have? Have there been any that have surprised you?
We can make anything that is currently made from petroleum-based plastic. The one interesting application that was slightly surprising was molding pet toys. Not only will your pet chew on it because it is plastic but it is protein and is desirable to them. I have not found a pet that would not go nuts for something made from the feather plastic. I had to keep the parts in my refrigerator when I brought them home or else my cat would eat them. This is also problematic, if your application is not chosen correctly or if you do not try to make the thing less desirable to an animal, something will come along and eat it.
What companies are using this process and what do they make?
Nobody yet although we are finalizing details of a start up company to produce it.