Crustacean waste biorefinery as a sustainable cost-effective business model

abstract

Marine-derived food wastes mainly include seafood, fish and feed production resources. From the crustaceans traded annually, 6 to 8 million tonnes of valuable shrimp, lobster and/or crab shells waste are produced worldwide. In this systemic work, the researchers with complementary technical expertise, covering the fields of chemical engineering design, chemistry, materials, predictive environmental sciences and economy, worked together to develop a sustainable multiproduct pipeline for the biorefinery of unwanted by-products. All process bio-products from the shells waste were recovered, separated, and purified. Only harmless solvents, namely water, the protonating acetic acid under mild functional conditions and buffers, conjugated with solid-liquid extraction, centrifugation, and membrane ultrafiltration technologies were applied. Here, a success business model is shown after its standardised evaluation in terms of purification performance, economic impact, and life cycle assessment has been performed, driving this sector towards a sustainable ocean-based economy.

keywords

ASTAXANTHIN EXTRACTION; ENZYMATIC-HYDROLYSIS; SHRIMP SHELLS; CHITIN; FERMENTATION; STABILITY; WATER

subject category

Engineering

authors

Vicente, FA; Ventura, SPM; Passos, H; Dias, ACRV; Torres-Acosta, MA; Novak, U; Likozar, B

our authors

acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Slovenian Research Agency under research core funding P2-0152 and within CESAM, UIDP/50017/2020, UIDB/50017/2020 and LA/P/0094/2020, financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) /MCTES. This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 & LA/P/0006/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC (PIDDAC) . This work was funded by A. Dias acknowledges FCT for her contract CEECIND/02174/2017. H. Passos acknowledges FCT under the Scientific Employment Stimulus-Individual Call-CEECIND/00831/2017.

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