Study On Papermaking Properties Of Feather Fibers And Protein

With the development of poultry industry, the way how we can deal with mass-produced feathers is a long-standing problem. There is not yet an effective method to use renewable feathers resource. In order to relieve deforestation pressure caused by growth in paper products demands and develop new methods for high added value products of feather fibers, papermaking properties of chicken feather fiber was studied in the thesis.At the beginning, the morphology of feather fibers was investigated. Feather fiber is different from fiber of traditional plant raw materials, which can be divided into coarse and fine fibers according to size respectively deriving from the coarse barbs and tiny feather branches of chicken. The fine feather fibers are rigid, stiff, straight, and easy to rebound, There are regularity of protrusions on the surface of fine feather fibers. Their length and width are smaller than them of LBKP. The length and width were all reduced after refined by High Consistency Disc Refiner. What mainly happened to feather fiber was cut effect,i.e. length reduction, rather than fibrous fibrillation.Secondly, the influence of feather fibers mixed with plant pulp fibers on paper properties was studied in the second part of the thesis. The results showed that feather fibers had a great influence on properties of sheets. With increasing addition of feather fibers, apparent density, tensile index, burst index decreased. This showed that there was weak binding between feather fibers and plant fibers. In order to improve binding force of feather fibers, two methods were investigated:hot water pretreatment and sodium bisulfite pretreatment. The binding of feather fibers was influenced by pretreating temperature. Strength properties of sheets increased obviously with higher temperature than 75℃. Similar results were achieved after NaHSO3 was added into feather fibers. With the increasing of addition of NaHSO3, brightness, burst index, tensile index and tear index were all improved.Finally, effects of protein glue made from feather fibers as paper strengthening agent and surface sizing agent were also investigated. Addition of protein glue to pulp in wet end can increased tensile index, burst index and folding endurance, which showed some potentiality as a reinforcing agent. When it was used as surface sizing agent, whether used alone or mixed with starch or polyvinyl alcohol, the mechanical strength of paper can be improved. However, it is unsuitable for cultural paper because of its dark color. So it can preferably be used for corrugating medium with no whiteness requirements.In conclusion, feather fiber is a renewable bioresource relatively unknown for papermakers. This research shows there is utilization potentiality in paper industry. In the future, feather fibers can be applied to the area of specialty paper according to their characteristics.