Toward the shell biorefinery: processing crustacean shell waste using hot water and carbonic acid

• Main Authors: Yang, Huiying, Gözaydın, Gökalp, Nasaruddin, Ricca Rahman, Har, Jie Ren Gerald, Xi, Chen, Wang, Xiaonan, Yan, Ning
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: American Chemical Society 2019
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology; TP155 Chemical engineering; TP368 Food processing and manufacture
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/72519/1/72519_Toward%20the%20Shell%20Biorefinery.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/72519/2/72519_Toward%20the%20Shell%20Biorefinery_SCOPUS.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/72519/3/72519_Toward%20the%20Shell%20Biorefinery_WOS.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/72519/; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b06853

Biomass fractionation is a prerequisite for almost any biorefinery process. Yet, a cost-effective and environmentally benign approach to separate biomass feedstock into valuable fractions remain a challenge. Herein we introduce a new fractionation method to extract high-value chitin from crustacean shell (e.g., shrimp shell) using hot water for deproteinization and carbonic acid for demineralization (termed as the HOW-CA process). This method features high deproteinization and demineralization efficiencies (>90%), and the whole process is accomplished within hours. The desired final product chitin exhibits a high purity. This work addresses the major problems associated with the current industrial practice including the employment of corrosive reagents, the destructive removal of a useful component, and the generation of a large amount of waste. Economic and life cycle analyses imply that the HOW-CA process is superior to the conventional method, offering both economic and environmental benefits