Researchers are working to commercialize a green technology that transforms seafood waste, such as lobster and crab shells, into a biodegradable plastic packaging alternative.
As detailed by UConn Today, a team of researchers in New England wanted to investigate how seafood scraps could be repurposed rather than left to rot in landfills, where it releases harmful planet-warming gases such as methane.
Seafood is an integral part of New England's culture and a crucial source of income for many communities. While seafood waste takes a big toll on the environment, researchers have figured out how to turn that trash into treasure with some chemistry and ingenuity.
Mingyu Qiao and Yangchao Luo, nutritional science professors and researchers at the University of Connecticut's College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, said seafood waste has many potential uses.
"Each type of seafood waste has different (chemical) components, and they might have different properties, so it can be good for different applications," Qiao told UConn Today. "The challenge is how to identify those molecules, their properties, and the best use."
The research duo explained that the natural compounds found in lobster and crab shells are also healthier for humans and the environment than synthetic chemicals in plastic. One of these is PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," which earned the name because they can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down naturally.
In the meantime, they accumulate in the environment and our bodies and have been linked to a plethora of health issues — including various cancers, reproductive problems, poor immune health, and developmental delays.
Like seafood scraps, plastic is "a major source of waste," as UConn Today stated, polluting the environment and contributing to global heating as it decomposes. However, since lobster and crab shells are natural, the plastics made from them would easily break down in the oceans.
"Nature already has a mechanism to biodegrade those polymers that is millions of years old," Qiao said.
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To turn the shells into sustainable plastic, Luo uses an eco-friendly method to extract a biological polymer from the waste called chitin — a fiber commonly found in fungi and crustaceans' exoskeletons. It is the second-most abundant natural polymer on the planet, with around 100 billion tons produced by small animals and fungi each year, per UConn Today.
"We're developing what we call a green biorefinery method using microorganisms that produce enzymes to break down those tissues and then we can extract the polymers sustainably," Qiao explained.
Luo and Qiao have partnered with UConn's Technology Commercialization Services and a Massachusetts-based lobster processing company to test their green extraction tech. They've also applied for a government-funded small business grant to help them scale up the technology.
When it's commercially available, the tech will bring us one step closer to a cleaner, plastic-free future.
"The seafood processing industry produces valuable waste that is rich in components like chitin and alginate, which have significant potential for diverse applications, from food and medical technologies to sustainable packaging alternatives," Amit Kumar, senior licensing director at UConn, said.
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