Chitin

Wastewater

Enamel paint

Engineering

Ecology

Biology

Materials science

Chromatography

Raw material

Fishery

Chitosan

Fractionation

Chemical engineering

Biochemical engineering

Waste management

Environmental engineering

Organic chemistry

Biofuel

Biomass (ecology)

Carbonic acid

Shell (structure)

Environmental science

Composite material

Biorefinery

Chemistry

Crustacean

Pulp and paper industry

Demineralization

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

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.

Toward the Shell Biorefinery: Processing Crustacean Shell Waste Using Hot Water and Carbonic Acid