Feather protein as a support for immobilizing enzymes

Feather meal protein was prepared in granular form and used as a support for lactase using glutaraldehyde as the crosslinking agent. The support gave a high retention of activity and in column operation it yielded apparent half-lives from 50 to 100 days. Because of its gel-like consistency (water content of about 90%), there is some diffusional restricting of activity as indicated by the kinetic data of soluble and immoblized enzymes.