Karl Christian T. Caracas, Nico Wilmer C. Lasola, Jyne Vincent D. Villarmino, Kenta Kitamura, Takamasa Mori, Noel Peter Tan, Francis Dave Siacor
Chitin is found in abundance in shrimp shells and is a highly sought component for bioplastic development. In the Philippines, shrimp meat processing discards shrimp shell as wastes which could be valorized by extracting chitin using the chemical method. Extraction of chitin starts with the demineralization of the sample with 1M HCl, at 25◦C to 30◦C, with a solid to solvent ratio of 1g:10mL for 1 hour. The samples are then processed for deproteinization with 1M NaOH, at 30◦C to 70◦C, with a solid to solvent ratio of 1g:10mL, for 1-24 hours. This study aims to extract chitin from shrimp shells and to optimize reaction temperature and time of the deproteinization step. The deproteinization temperature (30◦C to 70◦C) and time (1 hour to 24 hours) were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) by maximizing the extent of deproteinization (DP). The optimum conditions were determined to be at 53◦C and 24 hours, where the overall yield is 19.72% (±0.19) and the DP is 50.79% (±1.33). Lastly, the extracted chitin at the optimum conditions was determined to have a 94.17% (±1.2) degree of acetylation and a molecular weight of 29.15 kDa (±2.39). These are better than the commercial chitin which has a molecular weight requirement of ≥ 5 kDa and a degree of acetylation of ≥ 90%. © 2025, Thammasat University. All rights reserved.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of San Carlos, Cebu City, 6000, Philippines; Department of Chemical Science and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience and Applied Chemistry, Hosei University, Tokyo, 184-8584, Japan; Center for Advanced New Material, Engineering, and Emerging Technologies (CANMEET), University of San Agustin, Iloilo City, 5000, Philippines
