Diversion of Crab Waste into BioChar Production

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Louisbourg Seafoods Limited harvests (April to October) and sells 5 millions lbs of Snow Crab (Chionoecetesopilio) annually. The commercially desired product are the legs and shoulders generating resultant wastestreams from the bodies of the snow crabs (approximately 1/3 of the crab). Currently Louisbourg Seafoods paysfor snow crab waste to be landfilled and they are interested in alternative, more environmentally sustainablepractices. In a landfill, snow crab residues will decompose and generate some small amount of fixed carbon,however much of the carbon is released into the environment as CO2 during decomposition and aside fromsome microbial benefits none of the remaining interesting chemicals are utilized during landfill decomposition.The chemical composition of the snow crab includes a high content of protein (34.2% dw) and essential aminoacids; they also have fat (17.1% dw), with a high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids and approximately28.5% dw minerals (calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium) making this waste stream very intriguing as astarting biomass for the generation of biochar that has a more interesting and likely more valuable chemicalcomposition than forestry biochars.