Waste biomass valorization through strategic partnerships

The global fishing industry is an important source of food for the world’s population and also provides employment and income for many people. Although the industry harvests a large quantity of shellfish from the oceans and through aquaculture, a significant amount of waste is being generated. Shellfish waste has been a source of pollution in coastal areas; biodegradation of this waste is very slow, and accumulation of large quantities has become a major concern in the seafood processing industry. This not only creates environmental concerns, but the waste also contains valuable materials such as chitin, proteins, and calcium carbonate. The value of the waste by-products from the fishing industry has been recognized as a challenge to recover these valuable by-products. Past DOE research funding was used to develop a project aimed at developing high capacity adsorbents for the extraction of uranium from seawater using chitin produced by a Chitin IL Extraction Process (CILEP). We propose to scale this system into a continuous-flow, containerized unit based on a scaled- up process dissolution reactor that can be co-located as part of a seafood waste processing operation to yield high-value bioproducts. Local community engagement is needed to make this a reality. The CILEP biorefinery concept represents an important innovation for stimulating community partnership as an integral part of the processing of biomass into biproducts. The CILEP system will serve as a reproducible model in the community to follow for how a small-scale, modular biorefinery process can work as a powerful economic stimulus driver useful for community leaders, industry, educators, and students. The overall goal of this SBIR Phase I project is to develop a preliminary design package for implementation of the CILEP process (in Phase II) near the shrimp shell waste process facility in Bayou la Batre, AL to build supply to help the local fishing community and an educated entrepreneurial base to develop products to drive demand. This will be achieved by 1) Completing the preliminary engineering work necessary to design an operating CILEP system meeting project design criteria at scale that is replicable for GCASC and other communities with similar seafood waste; 2) Assessing the techno-economic viability of CILEP implementation; and 3) Involving the community stakeholders in the design plan to help the community guide what costs and returns are feasible locally. The project will yield significant impacts on a local, national, and even global scale. Like the world- wide transition of the rayon industry from a high polluting process to one that is now considered green, this operation places chitin in the realm of green manufacturing. A reduced footprint benefits human health and the environment. Furthermore, the process yields a product with high commercial value for boosting economies and one which can provide unforetold medical benefits. It promotes scientific learning by giving a high reward for critical thinking and serves as an example for other cutting-edge operations.