An innovative bio-refinery integration: Chitin production from crab shell waste.

这一创新项目将把食品工业废物与现成的非食品原料的生物提炼结合起来，以克服生产对环境和农村经济有影响的高价值化学品的障碍。它将开发一种联合生产有机酸和甲壳素的工艺，方法是将螃蟹粪便与植物生物质共同发酵，使用一种微生物产生一种有机酸，从而溶解蛋白质和矿物质，并随后缓冲介质，以实现最佳发酵。将包括蛋白质降解酶，以共同去除蛋白质。释放的矿物质将通过提高发酵介质中有机酸的产量来降低成本。提纯的甲壳素将作为农业生物兴奋剂和生产水处理以及个人和保健产品的原材料的潜在用途进行评估。将开发经济模型，以确定在英国农村社区建立全面生物精炼厂的适宜性，并将考虑包括有机酸和蛋白质在内的联产产品的价值。

This innovative project will integrate food industry waste with biorefining of a readily available non-food feedstock to overcome barriers for the production of high value chemicals with implications for the environment and rural economy. It will develop a process for the co-production of organic acid and chitin by co-fermenting the crab waste in combination with plant biomass using a microorganism which produces an organic acid resulting in solubilisation of protein and minerals and consequent buffering of the medium for an optimal fermentation. Protein degrading enzymes will be included for co-removal of proteins. Released minerals will reduce costs by enhancing production of the organic acids in the fermenting medium. The purified chitin will be assessed for its potential use as an agricultural bio-stimulant and as a raw material for producing both water treatment and personal and health care products. Economic models will be developed to determine the suitability of establishing full scale biorefineries in rural communities within the UK and will take into account the value of co-products including organic acids and protein.