Found in the exoskeletons of arthropods (shrimp, crab, lobster, insects), chitin is the second most abundant organic polymer in nature, cellulose is the most abundant. Chitin can be used as a substitute for plastics in food packaging or bottles and for foam products, microbeads and other application that have made plastics so ubiquidous.
Because chitin biodegrades in just a few weeks or months it would solve the growing problem we are now seeing with plastics that are polluting more and more of our planet. Scientists estimated that more than 9,000 million metric tons of virgin plastics have been produced since the dawn of the age of plastics. Of all that material only around 9% has been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment including our oceans. The amount of plastic waste keeps growing. Replacing some or most plastics with chitin may be one or even the solution.
The chitin and its derivative chitosan, offers many of plastic’s desirable properties and takes only weeks or months to biodegrade, rather than centuries that petroleum based polymers take to degrade. Chitin’s versatile properties have been known for a long time, and the substance is commercially extracted from shells in China and India. The problem is that the conventional method of extracting chitin breaks the polymer into small pieces and requires using toxic chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and the methods have never been permitted in the United States and the resultant material was not usable for food or drink packaging of other sensitive uses.
Using Dr. Rogers process, Mari Signum produces a sustainable source of premium quality chitin that have application to numerous end markets uses. Unlike all other global chitin producers, Mari Signum / Dr. Rogers process is sustainable and uses an ionic liquid to separate chitin from shells and create a pristine chitin molecule. An ionic liquid is a one in which no electrons are shared but the attraction between a positively charged ion, called a cation, and negatively charged ion, or anion, holds them together. Thousands of repeating sugar units in chitin entangle themselves via hydrogen bonds, and neither water nor most organic solvents can penetrate that network. Rogers solved that problem by useing 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate. This ionic liquid belongs to the lowest chemical toxicity category, according to United Nations standards and is mostly vinegar.
Mari Signum’s Richmond, Va. location is the only chitin production facility in the United States and stands ready to be at the forefront of a fundamental reshaping of plastic packaging and plastics in general; the potential to transform global plastic packaging material market that is about $100-$125 billon annually and usher in the New Plastics Economy with Richmond, Virginia at its center.
For more information see Science News Magazine issue: Vol. 195, No. 11, June 22, 2019, p. 18
Or the Mari Signum web site
The chitin and its derivative chitosan, offers many of plastic’s desirable properties and takes only weeks or months to biodegrade, rather than centuries that petroleum based polymers take to degrade. Chitin’s versatile properties have been known for a long time, and the substance is commercially extracted from shells in China and India. The problem is that the conventional method of extracting chitin breaks the polymer into small pieces and requires using toxic chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and the methods have never been permitted in the United States and the resultant material was not usable for food or drink packaging of other sensitive uses.
Using Dr. Rogers process, Mari Signum produces a sustainable source of premium quality chitin that have application to numerous end markets uses. Unlike all other global chitin producers, Mari Signum / Dr. Rogers process is sustainable and uses an ionic liquid to separate chitin from shells and create a pristine chitin molecule. An ionic liquid is a one in which no electrons are shared but the attraction between a positively charged ion, called a cation, and negatively charged ion, or anion, holds them together. Thousands of repeating sugar units in chitin entangle themselves via hydrogen bonds, and neither water nor most organic solvents can penetrate that network. Rogers solved that problem by useing 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate. This ionic liquid belongs to the lowest chemical toxicity category, according to United Nations standards and is mostly vinegar.
Mari Signum’s Richmond, Va. location is the only chitin production facility in the United States and stands ready to be at the forefront of a fundamental reshaping of plastic packaging and plastics in general; the potential to transform global plastic packaging material market that is about $100-$125 billon annually and usher in the New Plastics Economy with Richmond, Virginia at its center.
For more information see Science News Magazine issue: Vol. 195, No. 11, June 22, 2019, p. 18
Or the Mari Signum web site
Interesting. I hope this will not be a problem for people with shellfish allergy.
ReplyDelete