Quantity of moulted shrimp shells during intensive culture process and trials for chitin production
Abstract
This paper presents the quantity of the moulded shells collected from the intensive shrimp culture at a time from 40 to over 90 days. Besides, the collected shells were analyzed for chemical composition, used for chitin production and characterization. The results showed that the amount of the moulded shells was about 280 kg/season for the pond area of 1500m2, 5 tons of shrimp, the density of 200 shrimps/m2 using the Biofloc process. After 90 days, the composition of moulded shells includes mineral content of 55.9 ± 2.1 wt.%, protein content of 12.7 ± 0.6 wt.%, and chitin content of 23.6 ± 0.5 wt.%. After the demineralization and deproteinization, chitin yield was about 23%, and the ash and protein remainings were less than 1wt.%. These findings indicate the moulded shell is a potential source for chitin production and an efficient approach for sustainable shrimp aquaculture development.
