Authors: Associate Professor P B Bhajantri, Associate Professor M M Ganganallimath, Basavaraj Japannavar, Kalmesh Shiragabaraga, Nagaraj Petnekar, Nandish Jadav
Abstract: The growing accumulation of poultry, agricultural, and food-processing waste has created an urgent need for sustainable pathways that convert such residues into useful engineering materials. This study examines the development of multi-waste hybrid epoxy composites reinforced with three commonly discarded bio-wastes: chicken feather fiber, banana plant fiber, and eggshell particulate. Chicken feather, a keratin-rich fiber byproduct of the poultry industry, offers low density, good thermal insulation, and hydrophobic behaviour; banana fiber, obtained from pseu-do-stem or leaf sheath residue of banana cultivation, provides cellulose-based tensile reinforce-ment; and eggshell, a calcium-carbonate-rich particulate waste, functions as a rigid filler that im-proves stiffness and reduces water uptake. This paper reviews fabrication routes such as hand lay-up, compression moulding, and vacuum-assisted lay-up used to combine these three waste streams within an epoxy matrix, and compares their individual and combined effects on tensile, flexural, impact, hardness, water-absorption, and thermal properties. The economic and environ-mental value of converting these waste materials into automotive, packaging, construction, and consumer-good components is discussed, along with the processing challenges of fiber treatment, filler dispersion, and interfacial bonding. The review concludes that a ternary hybridisation strate-gy-combining a protein-based fiber, a cellulose-based fiber, and a mineral particulate-offers a promising balance of strength, stiffness, and sustainability that no single waste stream can achieve alone.
