Leonardo Electronic Journal of Practices and Technologies ISSN 1583-1078 Issue 24, January-June 2014 p. 13-22 13 http://lejpt.academicdirect.org Kinetics of Demineralization of Shrimp Shell Using Lactic Acid Alewo Opuada AMEH 1* , David ABUTU 2 , Muhammed Tijani ISA 1 , Umar RABIU 1 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. 2 Department of Chemical Sciences, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria. E-mails: alewooameh@yahoo.com ; abutlericdav@yahoo.com ; mtisaz@yahoo.com ; umally89@gmail.com . * Corresponding author: Phone: +2348035600744 Abstract Shrimp exoskeleton was demineralized using lactic acid and the kinetics of the demineralisation was studied. The residual concentration of calcium after acid treatment was used as a measure of the degree of demineralisation. Kinetic data was obtained using five acid concentrations (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1M) and the obtained kinetic data was fitted to the shrinking core model. For all concentrations, the best predictive model was determined to be ash layer diffusion controlled mechanism. Keywords Calcium; Demineralization; Lactic Acid; Shrimp; Shrinking Core Model Introduction Bio wastes originated from marine food products such as carapace and head of the shrimp, crab and krill are considered to be a rich source of protein, calcium carbonate and chitin [1]. Chitin is a natural polysaccharide composed of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units and is the second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose [2]. It is biodegradable, biocompatible