PRISM - PuRification and Isolation of Shell Membranes

全球约30%的鸡蛋生产是在破碎工厂进行加工，以生产商业和消费液体鸡蛋产品。高通量破碎机每秒可以处理三个以上的鸡蛋，同时破碎、排空、收集鸡蛋内容物，并将蛋壳分流处理。这些机器排放的粉碎蛋壳含有蛋壳和蛋壳膜(ESM)，然后主要作为肥料出售，用于土壤改良剂或饲料添加剂。最近对ESM的研究已经证明了其潜在的临床益处，并刺激了许多用于关节疼痛、伤口愈合和皮肤护理的创新保健品的开发和营销。然而，目前从排放的混合物中收集ESM的商业方法包括空气或水基浮选方法和从ESM中去除外壳的酸处理。这些技术有几个缺点，从产品质量到产生高生化需氧量的化学和水废物。为了解决这些缺点，我们的团队发明了一种新的工具，可以直接从蛋壳中机械地提取ESM，而不需要化学物质或大量的水。这个项目的目标是将这项经过验证的技术整合到一个鸡蛋破碎机的原型中。概念验证的成功创建将证明其在工业背景下的实施是合理的，并推动专注于ESM提取的自动鸡蛋破碎自动机的开发。

About 30% of the global production of chicken eggs are processed at breaking plants to produce commercial and consumer liquid egg products. High-throughput breaking machines can process over three eggs per second while breaking, emptying, collecting the egg contents, and diverting the eggshells for disposal. The crushed eggshells, which contain both the shell and the Eggshell Membranes (ESM), discharged by these machines are then mainly sold as fertilizer for soil amendment or feedstock supplement. Recent research on ESM has demonstrated its potential clinical benefits and has spurred the development and marketing of numerous innovative health products for joint pain, wound healing, and skin care. However, current commercial collection of ESM from the discharged mixtures involves air or water-based flotation approaches and acid treatments to remove the shell from the ESM. There are several disadvantages of these technologies from product quality to the generation of chemical and aqueous waste with high biochemical oxygen demand. To address these shortcomings, our team has invented a new tool for extracting the ESM directly from the eggshell mechanically, without the need for chemicals or large quantities of water. The goal is of this project is to incorporate this proven technology in a prototype egg breaking machine. The successful creation of a proof-of-concept will justify its implementation in an industrial context and spur the development of an automated egg breaking automated machine focused on ESM extraction.