Feather hydrolysate as a promising nitrogen-rich fertilizer for greenhouse lettuce cultivation

Abstract

Purpose Poultry agro-industry generates huge amounts of solid wastes, such as poultry litter (PL) and feathers. Feathers, possessing a substantial amount of organic nitrogen, are mainly converted into feather meal (FM) through the hydrothermal process; however, microbial conversion into feather hydrolysates (FH) is increasingly being focused on. Since waste management strategies include the use of organic wastes as soil fertilizer, PL, FM, and FH were evaluated as fertilizers for lettuce in comparison to urea. Methods Lettuce seedlings were transplanted to soil pots containing FH, obtained through feathers' bioconversion by Bacillus sp. CL18, FM, PL, urea, and unfertilized controls. Partial chemical characterization of FH, FP, and PL was performed. Fertilization treatments were applied to reach 180 kg N/ha. Growth, dry biomass, and chlorophyll contents of lettuce were evaluated to indicate fertilizer performance. Results After 60 days of greenhouse lettuce cultivation, leaves per plant were superior after FH treatment. Lettuce fertilized with urea and FH presented higher and similar foliar areas. FH treatment resulted in increased dry weight (DW) of leaves, which then decreased in the order urea > FM > MM ~ controls > PL. Dry weight of leaves and roots was 33% and 64% higher with FH than with urea. Leaf total chlorophyll content was higher with FH, but similar to urea and FM. Lettuce growth was negatively affected by PL when compared to controls. Conclusion FH, obtained from microbial processing of abundant and inexpensive feathers, could be a candidate N-rich fertilizer for lettuce cultivation.

Biorefinery-Fermentation of Agro-Wastes by Haloferax lucentensis GUBF-2 MG076878 to Haloextremozymes for use as Biofertilizer and Biosynthesizer of AgNPs

“…Protein-rich hydrolysates obtained from the valorization of agro-food wastes have attracted much interest in recent years owing to their application in various fields of medicine [20,[39][40][41], agriculture [5,13], and industry [10,42]. Among these, microbially derived feather and coconut oil cake hydrolysates are verified to positively affect plant growth [3,12,43] and biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles for biomedical applications [39], respectively.…”

“…The green biorefinery approach to produce protein and enzyme-rich hydrolysates from agro-waste biomass is a promising alternative to chemical methods [1]. Oil milling and poultry agro-industries generate a huge amount of solid wastes such as oil cakes and feathers, accounting for major environmental constraints concerning their disposal [2,3]. However, feather waste (FW) and coconut oil cake (COC) hydrolysates have utility in various biotechnological applications.…”

“…These hydrolysates are rich in proteins, amino acids, enzymes, and soluble sugars, which can be exploited to generate bioproducts such as biofertilizers, bioplastics, esters, nanoparticles, dietary fibers, etc. [3][4][5][6].…”

“…Feathers represent 5-7% of the total weight of mature chicken and constitute 80-90% keratin and 12-15% nitrogen [7][8][9]. Feather hydrolysate produced by bacteria is used for the synthesis of bioplastic [10], nanoparticles [11] and in slow-release nitrogen fertilizers [3,[12][13][14][15][16].…”

Commercial initiation of feather hydrolysate as supreme fertilizer: A smart bio-cleaning strategy of poultry waste

“…In this critical situation, only biological origin can resolve and overcome these two conditions and maintain environmental ecosystem. Poultry processing wastes (feathers and litter) are a rich source of nitrogenous waste and can be converted to slow-release fertilizer through bacterial degradation [2,3,4,5]. This is a coincident that in a pandemic situation, maintaining personal health and hygiene is a great challenge among common people.…”