Feather Meal Processing Systems

Feather Meal Processing Systems

Feather meal is a co-product from the poultry industry that can benefit from material handling and milling. It is made from poultry feathers by grinding them under heat and pressure and then drying them. It is used for its high nitrogen content, and can be used as animal feed or organic fertilizer.

Throughout the world, about twenty-five billion chickens are used for human consumption. The remnants of chickens that cannot be consumed must be dealt with, much of it being the abundance of feather left behind. Feather meal is usually made through a process called rendering. Steam pressure cookers cook and sterilize the feathers and high temperatures reaching to 140 degrees Celsius. This denatures the proteins by hydrolyzing them. The feathers are then dried, cooled, and ground into a powder to use as a nitrogen source, animal feed, and sometimes as an organic soil amendment.

Feather meal provides slow release, organic, high-nitrogen fertilizers. The nitrogen content can be up to 12%. It is primarily used for increasing green leaf growth, activating compost decomposition, and improving soil structure. When feather meal is added to a garden for its nitrogen content, it must be appropriately blended into the soil to allow for proper decomposition. This allows the nitrogenous compounds to be readily available to the plants.

The ONIX Corporation’s processing systems can handle numerous materials and co-products that you may not know what to do with or want a better more effective way to process. We have the ability to work with materials such as, but not limited to, apple pomace, citrus pomace, sludge, alfalfa, bagasse, coffee grounds, sawdust, feather meal and much more. Our equipment is engineered to fit your specific needs. If you feel that The ONIX Corporation may be of assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to research more about our alternative fuel systems, including rotary drum dryers and material handling solutions. Whether you’re looking for a new solution to process and dry feather meal, or something else, it never hurts to give us a call to learn more.