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Updated: Nov 18, 2025

Isolation and Screening from Soil Biodiversity for Fungi Involved in the Degradation of Recalcitrant Materials
Published on: May 16, 2022
Key Challenges of Microbial Degradation of Keratinous Wastes
1Bioengineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Muradiye, 45140, Manisa, Turkey.
Abstract:
Feather is the main waste of poultry industries and constitutes of 90% keratin. Wastes composed of keratin are insoluble and recalcitrant to degradation using conventional decomposing methods. Microbial degradation for keratinous wastes is a promising approach for being eco-friendly and economically. However, due to insolubility of keratinous waste, it has several challenges in upstream and downstream processes such as culture medium optimization, designing of bioreactor, bioreaction/flow type, bioreactor configurations considering mass and heat transfer limitations, rheology derived problems, monitoring of microbial activity, choosing of the right scale-up parameter and purification. In this study, the challenges for keratin degradation processes were discussed with the aim of opening new opportunities for keratinous waste treatments in industrial level.
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