Extracting valuable compounds from shrimp shell waste: recovery of high-quality as calcium-centric resources for hydroxyapatite production

This feasibility study investigates the potential use of shrimp shell waste derived from peeled fresh and dried shrimp as a source of calcium (Ca) to produce value-added products (VAP). Thermal treatment of the samples was carried out by calcination at temperatures ranging from 200 to 1000 °C, and the resulting products were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The results show that the shrimp shell waste changes from black to white powder, with increasing temperature during the calcination of the carbon combustion, as proven in the thermogravimetric’s (TGA) weight loss profile. The percent calcium recovery increased from 29.51 to 71.47%, and the optimum calcination temperature was reached at 1000 °C for both dried (DSS 1000) and fresh (FSS 1000) shrimp shell wastes. Spectral analysis showed that the hydroxyapatite (HAp) using calcium oxide (CaO) from FSS 1000 sample corresponded to the characteristic peaks of hydroxyapatite (JCPDS No. 9001233), while HAp produced from Ca DSS 1000 was identified as carbonate hydroxyapatite (JCPDS No. 9003552). The properties and quality of the calcium element varied according to the process used to produce shrimp shell waste. Therefore, the study suggests that shrimp shell waste could be a valuable resource for calcium recovery while mitigating the negative impacts of waste disposal on the ecosystem.