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

Abstract

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.

Towards Shell Biorefinery: Advances in Chemical‐Catalytic Conversion of Chitin Biomass to Organonitrogen Chemicals

“…Owing to the significant potential applications of chitin biomass, an important concept of "shell biorefinery", [3,4] similar to lignocellulosic biomass based biorefinery, [1] has been proposed. Currently, this concept is under intensive development mainly in green protocols for shell fractionation, [5] novel pre-treatment of chitin, [6] and especially catalytic production of useful chemicals from chitin biomass, which offers new approaches for sustainable synthesis of value-added nitrogen-containing chemicals and materials. Some chitin-derived chemicals, like amino sugars, amino alcohols, amino acids and heterocyclic compounds, have shown potential applications in medicine, food, beverages, cosmetics, and others.…”

Chitin- and cellulose-based sustainable barrier materials: a review

“…To address the scalable production issues, persistent efforts have been made to explore new methods such as biological fermentation [139,140] and ionic liquid extraction [141][142][143]. In 2019, an efficient and economical protocol, using hot water for deproteinization and carbonic acid for demineralization, termed the HOW-CA process was described for the fractionation of shrimp shells [144]. Water and CO 2 are the only reagents in the process, and the resulting chitin product has a purity of over 90% [144].…”

“…In 2019, an efficient and economical protocol, using hot water for deproteinization and carbonic acid for demineralization, termed the HOW-CA process was described for the fractionation of shrimp shells [144]. Water and CO 2 are the only reagents in the process, and the resulting chitin product has a purity of over 90% [144]. Because of the hydrophilic groups on the backbones, these biobased materials are easily mixed with a water-soluble polymer matrix.…”

Production of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from Chitin Biomass: A Review

“…Using glycerol as the reaction solvent for deacetylation of chitin could realize deacetylation of chitin with low NaOH concentration and provide an efficient and green process for chitosan extraction from chitin [34]. Recently, Yang et al [35] developed a new economical and feasible shrimp shell fractionation method using hot water deproteinization and carbonic acid demineralization to extract high-value chitin from crustacean shells such as shrimp shells. The proteins were partially hydrolyzed and fully solubilized in water at high temperature.…”