| Summary: |
The petroleum-derived plastics are widely used as materials for packaging, due to its availability, low cost and advantages functional characteristics. However, these materials are non-biodegradable, making them a raw material causing serious environmental problems. In this context, natural biodegradable biopolymers appeared as an alternative to reduce the environmental pollution caused by the conventional plastics. Some proteins were already used in the production of films, as for example, soybean proteins, gluten, gelatine, and the keratin from wool and animal feathers. The keratin is a fibrous protein which is found in the human and animal hairs. There are some studies related to the production of biofilms of keratin obtained from chicken feathers. Regarding the production of biofilms from bull?s hair, yet no study is reported in the open literature. The bull's hair is also a source of keratin, however it is usually destroyed during the hair removal from the skin. Recently, this process has been gradually changing to a process where the hair is removed without being destroyed. However, this introduces some problems regarding the poor extraction of the hair root, giving a negative impact in the quality of finished leather. For this reason it has not been adopted by Portuguese leather processing.
The aim of this project is to develop the following lines of work:
- Development of an optimum process of hair extraction, where the hair can be entirely obtained;
- Valorization of chicken feathers to produce films and/or microcapsules, focusing on the methodologies already developed, to implement its application at industrial level in Portugal;
- Development and optimization of the process to produce films and/or
microcapsules from bull?s hair, its characterization and application in industry;
- Development of keratin hydrolysis process and its chemical modification in order to be applied in finishing leather industry. |