141 Proc. of the Intl. Conf. on Advances In Applied Science and Environmental Engineering - ASEE 2014. Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63248-004-0 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-004-0-93 A Simple and Effective Method for Extraction of High Purity Chitosan from Shrimp Shell Waste Divya K, Sharrel Rebello and Jisha M S Abstract—Shell waste produced by the sea food industry is one of the most important problems contributing significant environmental and health hazards. The most frequent method employed for its disposal is burning which becomes environmentally costly due to low burning capacity of shells. In such a scenario, conversion of Shrimp shell waste to chitosan a commercially valuable product with a myriad of uses, could serve as an effective mode of shell remediation. Chitosan was obtained from shrimp shell waste by deproteination, demineralisation, decolourization and deacetylation processes. It was characterized using FT-IR, SEM and XRD. The physiochemical parameters like moisture content, pH, viscosity, residue on ignition, degree of deacetylation and solubility was also analysed. Results: Crude chitin was collected from shell of Penaeus monodon which was then processed to obtain chitosan. The chitosan yield was found to be 46%. Chitosan obtained had 5% moisture content, pH of 8 and 85% degree of deacetylation. Viscosity was 80cps. Residue on ignition was only 2% and was soluble in 1% acetic acid solution. The FT-IR, SEM and XRD data confirms the structure of chitosan. Conclusion: Biopolymers like chitin and chitosan are important due to their biological and physiochemical properties. These properties offer many potential applications in various fields like environmental protection, agriculture, medicine, pharamaceutics and biotechnology. The current study demonstrated an effective method for extraction of high purity chitosan from shrimp waste. Keywords—Penaeus monodon, chitin, chitosan. Introduction Sea food, a delicacy for many are seen in market in a wide variety of products. The sea food industries process and package the harvested products. During the processing, the meat is only taken, while the head and shells of shell fish are generated as waste. This results in generation of large amount of shell waste globally. Divya K # , Sharrel Rebello, Jisha M.S.* School of Biosciences, Mahathma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. The shell fish industry which is prominent in all costal countries generates about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of waste [1]. Even though the wastes are biodegradable, the dumping off large quantities makes degradation process slow resulting in accumulation of waste overtime which is a major environmental concern. A quick and effective solution to this is recycling of shell wastes and extraction of commercially viable substances like chitin from them. Chitin on its own has various applications. This can further be deacetylated to form chitosan which has a wide range of uses [2]. Chitosan is a linear aminopolysacchride of (1→4) linked N-acetyl glucosamine and glucosamine units. It is a white, hard, inelastic and nitrogenous polysaccharide [3]. Chitosan finds a variety of applications due to its high biodegradability, non-toxicity and antimicrobial properties. It is used in biomedical industries, agriculture, genetic engineering, food industry, environmental pollution control, water treatment, paper manufacture, photography and so on [4]. Even though there are different methods for extraction of chitosan from shrimp shell, most are time consuming or low yielding. The present study aims to synthesize chitosan using a simple but effective method for producing chitosan. Materials and Methods 1. Sample Preparation: Shells of Penaeus monodon or Giant Tiger Prawn were obtained from the shell fish industries in Cherthala, Kerala. The shells were washed, air dried and refrigerated overnight. This was then oven dried for four consecutive days at 65 0 C. 2. Extraction of Chitosan: Chitosan was prepared using a combination of three procedures [5-7] . Five gram of shrimp shell waste was treated with 4% NaOH at room temperature for 24hours. The alkali was drained from the shells and washed with distilled water repeatedly till pH dropped to neutral. This process caused deproteinization of shells. The deproteinized shells were treated with 4% HCl at room temperature for 12hours for demineralization to