An estimated 6-8 million tons of crustacean shells are generated annually, whereas the majority of them are treated as waste. However, there are profitable markets for waste shell fractionation into useful chemicals such as the high-valued chitin. In the past few years, we proposed and practiced the concept of “Shell Biorefinery”,[1-2] in which the waste crustacean shells are fractionated into valuable components and further processed into high value chemicals and materials, in particular nitrogen containing chemicals. The first part of the talk will be focused on transformation of chitin into chemicals. In the second part of the talk, I will be introducing most recent advances of shell fractionation undergoing in the group.

Waste shell biorefinery: Dream or reality?

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.