Chitosan from shrimp shells in high-value products
Bio cosmetic products I – The business model
A Norwegian company started extracting chitosan from shrimp shells in Northern Norway in the late 1990s. The success of this practice is driven by good business opportunities to extract and commercialize a high-value compound from marine resources.
The innovative aspect of the process is a better use of fishing residues, from previous dumping of shrimp shells into the ocean, to extracting, isolating, and utilizing a high-value component (chitosan) in high-value products (pharmaceuticals and personal care products).
Fishermen bring the shrimps to shore where the fish processing industries are located. Shrimp shells coming from the two largest processing facilities in Norway are then shipped and processed by Chitinor AS. The company in charge of picking up and shipping the shrimp shells to Chitinor premises, is chosen upon agreements with the processing industry, depending on the volumes and available logistics options.
In this practice the economic benefit goes mostly to the processing company that provides Nordic marine biomass to chitin extractors. Most of their products are MSC approved. The MSC stamp guarantees that the product comes from sustainable sources. (MSC stands for Marine Stewardship Council: www.MSC.org).
Bio cosmetic products II – The products
Chitin, the structural scaffold polymer of protective shrimp shells is extracted by Chitinor AS and converted into the high-performing biopolymer chitosan. The extraction and conversion process include de-mineralization, de-proteinization and de-acetylation of the shells. Minerals and proteins are removed from the shrimp shells during the extraction step. The conversion from chitin into chitosan takes place through a treatment with balanced concentration of inorganic solvents and controlled temperature. The so-called deacetylation step results in chitosan that subsequently gets washed with pure fresh water. The process takes approximately 3 days and produce chitosan that is used in pharmaceuticals and skin/hair care products.
The increased value of the shrimp shells contributes to improve the economy of the shrimp processing industry, given the ability to provide a broad range of natural sources of chitin. However, in order to guarantee a defined and reproducible chemical grade of the finished products, only one species is processed for the extraction of high-quality chitosan. This is the case when chitosan is extracted exclusively from the shell of the cold-water shrimp Pandalus borealis.
Ample availability of this species in cold Northern ocean waters provide a secure bioresource for the activity.
As chitosan is a natural polysaccharide it is also biodegradable. Hydamer personal care products produced by showed more than 70 % biodegradability in the BODIS-Test (ISO 10634).
