Utilization of Waste: Extraction and Characterization of Chitosan from Shrimp Byproducts

Abstract

Chitin and Chitosan have been produced from shrimp byproduct by chemical method. Shrimp byproducts were collected from fish processing point. The process of chitin extraction from shrimp waste was involving demineralization with 2% (v/v) HCl solution (10:1 v/w, 30ºC, 12h), then de-proteinization with 4% (w/v) NaOH solution (10:1 v/w, 90ºC, 12h). Chitosan was produced by deacetylation step by treating extracted chitin under conditions of 15 psi/121ºC with 50% NaOH for 20 min and a solid/solvent ratio of 1:10 (w/v). Results show that the yield of the extracted chitosan was 54.65% and the degree of deacetylation was 70.9% with pH 8.4 and solubility of 98.15% compared to commercial chitosan 99.0%. The higher yield was due to repeating demineralization and deprotonated steps twice. Viscosity of extracted chitosan was 12.23 cPs which was higher than commercial chitosan 8.06 cPs. Other chitosan properties have been investigated including water binding capacity, oil binding capacity, emulsion capacity, emulsion stability and antioxidant activity of extracted chitosan.

Keywords: Chitosan, extraction, deacetylation, water binding capacity.