Chicken Feathers may one day compete with more high-tech solutions such as carbon nanotubes for storing hydrogen for fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

Richard Wool's team at the University of Delaware in Newark heated chicken feather fibres to 400 °C without burning. The process resulted in stable, porous carbonised fibres. When cooled to -266 °C, the material could store almost 2 per cent of its weight in hydrogen - almost as much as carbon nanotubes.