Towards Chemical-Free Extraction of Keratin from Animal Body Parts for Commercial Applications

Keratin is an intracellular protein in animal-body parts such as hairs wool nails skins feathershooves claws and others. They are a considerable part of slaughtering wastes brought intorendering plants and mostly disposed of at landfills causing environmental issues such as CH4emissions. The global keratin market is expected to grow considerably over the next 5 yearsprimarily due to its increasing demand in the personal care and cosmetic industry. Keratin hasfavorable cares on skin and hair such as anti-aging and rejuvenating effects. However the currentcommercial extraction process is based on chemical methods using a large volume of toxicchemicals and the process is time-consuming. It is not sustainable for a long term. Our objective isnot to use chemicals in extracting keratin but to use thermal hydrolysis as an alternative processthus reducing the production cost and environmental impacts of the current extraction processes.Extracted keratin hydrolysates will be recovered by our anti-fouling ultrafiltration system. Inparticular we will attempt to preserve the cystine residues in the extracted keratin which has notbeen reported in the literature. Cystine is the important structural element for forming coiled coilsin keratin fibrils. The anticipated results would be significant reduction of undesired animal bodywaste disposals and also sustainable productions of affordable keratin-based cosmeceuticals andbiomedical products leaving less environmental footprints. In the meamtime the renderingindustry can practice more sustainable operations by recycling undesired animal body partscontributing to the circular economy and receiving new revenue stream at the same time.