Comparison of extraction sequence on yield and physico-chemical characteristic of chitosan from shrimp shell waste

Abstract

The focus of this study was to compare the yield and characteristics of chitosan produced from different sequences of treatment for deproteination, demineralization and deacetylation. In Process 1, deproteination occurred in the first step followed by demineralization and deacetylation. While Process 2 was started with demineralization step and followed by deproteination and deacetylation. The results show that the percentage yield of chitosan was slightly higher when Process 2 was adopted with 22.22 %. However, the process produced chitosan with lower degree of deacetylation and solubility with high ash content, which were 76.47 %, 37.79 % and 2.67 %, respectively. While, when Process 1 was carried out, the degree of deacetylation of chitosan, solubility and ash content were improved to 91.26 %, 100 % and 0.38 %, respectively, with lower yield of 19.01 %. Therefore, this study suggests the extraction process should be performed by carrying out deproteination step before demineralization and deacetylation (Process 1) to produce a good quality of chitosan.