Objectives Shellfish waste is a primary source for making N -acetyl- d -glucosamine. Thus, establishing a high-efficiency and low-cost bioconversion method to produce N -acetyl- d -glucosamine directly from shellfish waste was promising.
Results A mutant C81 was obtained from Chitinolyticbacter meiyuanensis SYBC-H1 via 60 Co-γ irradiation. This mutant C81 showed the highest chitinase activity of 9.8 U/mL that was 85% higher than the parent strain. The mutant C81 exhibted improved antioxidant activities, including total antioxidant capacity, superoxide radical ability, and hydroxyl radical scavenging ability, compared to that of the parent strain. Four out of nine organic solvents increased the chitinase activity by 1.9%, 6.8%, 11.7%, and 15.8%, corresponding to methylbenzene, n-heptane, petroleum ether, and n-hexane, respectively. The biphase system composed of aqueous and hexane presented a five-fold reduction of cell viability compared to the control. Using a continuous fermentation bioconversion process, 4.2 g/L GlcNAc was produced from crayfish shell powder with a yield of 80% of the chitin content. Conclusions This study demonstrated that the mutant C81 is suitable for converting crayfish shell powder into GlcNAc in an aqueous-organic system.
Two novel adsorbents derived from shrimp shell were prepared and their adsorption performances on Congo red were investigated. The results suggested that treated shrimp shell powder exhibited a higher adsorption capacity than raw shrimp shell powder. The factors of initial concentration, solution pH, adsorption time, and temperature were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity of treated shrimp shell powder calculated according to the Langmuir isotherm model was 288.2 mg/g, which is much higher than that of chitin. The adsorption behavior could be fitted well by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Intra-particle diffusion model was also used to study the adsorption process. The thermodynamic parameters indicated the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the adsorption. Shrimp shell powder exhibited enough advantages such as large adsorption capacity, low cost, simple processing methods and high specific gravity compared with chitin or chitosan. This work confirmed that the shrimp shell biosorbent had a potential to be applied in dye wastewater treatment area.
Utilizing waste carbon resources to produce chemicals and materials is beneficial to mitigate the fossil fuel consumption and the global warming. In this study, ocean-based chitin biomass and waste shrimp shell powders were employed as the feedstock to prepare Pd loaded nitrogen-doped carbon materials as the catalysts for carbon dioxide (CO2)/bicarbonate hydrogenation into formic acid, which simultaneously converts waste biomass into useful materials and CO2 into a valuable chemical. Three different preparation methods were examined, and the two-stage calcination was the most efficient one to obtain N-doped carbon material with good physicochemical properties as the best Pd support. The highest formic acid yield was achieved of ∼77% at 100 °C in water with KHCO3 substrate under optimal condition with a TON of 610. The nitrogen content and N functionalities of the as-synthesized carbon materials were crucial which could serve as anchor sites for the Pd precursor and assist the formation of well-dispersed and small-sized Pd NPs for boosted catalytic activity. The study puts forward a facile, inexpensive and environmentally benign way for simultaneous valorization of oceanic waste biomass and carbon dioxide into valuable products.