there are a number of companies around the world that are seeking to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels by finding or creating environmentally-friendly materials for a wide variety of applications. one of those companies is aeropowder, a startup founded in london by imperial college by doctoral engineering student elena dieckmann and biologist ryan robinson.

ryan robinson eaxmines a feather in the lab. (youtube)

aeropowder is seeking a means for turning the billions of chicken feathers that are produced in great britain from meat processing. rather than have those feathers sit in a landfill, beginning in 2015 aeropowder started using the feathers’ innate thermal properties as the foundation for insulating materials.

among the options that the company has explored, according to its website, are biodegradable composites, sound-absorbing panels, insulation, and water repellant coatings. more than 400 prototypes have already been completed for testing and in march 2016 the feather-based insulation was recognized with the mayor of london’s low carbon entrepreneur award for improving “the thermal efficiency of london’s housing stock.”

the company was also awarded a shell livewire smarter future programme award for its potential to lower london’s carbon footprint by as much as 10 percent, according to a report from shell.  aeropowder has been featured on the queen elizabeth prize for engineering’s “create the future” blog series and in a recent article in forbes.

dieckmann and robinson turned to feathers because of several properties, especially their ability to be a thermal insulator as well as water repellent and sound-absorbing. feathers are copmpoased largely of keratin, so are also lightweight but remarkably durable.

using a patent-pending conversion process, aeropowder takes full, clean feathers from the slaughterhouse and turns them into its range of products.

in the forbes article, dieckmann said, “this product won’t just be able to thermally insulate a building, it will also biodegrade when it’s put to landfill. the next step for us now is to set up a pilot, to see how we can best integrate this into a wider supply chain.”

learn more about aeropowder at http://www.aeropowder.com/ and in the video below: