Using locally available resources to sustain the local economy has been (and in some parts of the world still is) looked at as a valuable survival skill. The rising cost of finite petroleum resources have increased the demand for manufacture of products from abundant natural resources (such as agricultural or forest-based feedstock) and new resource-based economic development. The environmental consciousness resulted in pursuing more sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics, and from this viewpoint, many attractive properties of biopolymers inspired multiple big industry players in using them for the development of the materials of the future. One such example is the broad applications opportunities for chitin derivatives. Although chitin and chitin derivatives worth $63B worldwide there is not (yet) a single chitin production plant in North America. Another reason for the current limitations in utilizing chitin to its full potential is the process that is required to extract the chitin from raw biomass. The current process employs harsh conditions (acidic and alkaline treatment at elevated pressure and temperatures) which result in the degradation of the chitin structure, thus changing the properties of the biopolymer. Due to the aforementioned limitations, there is no surprise that chitin materials have not been previously produced and marketed. It is well known that ionic liquids (ILs) are great solvents when it comes to biomass processing, from lignocellulosic biomass to crustacean waste, with the vision that one day the ILs will replace the current chemical-, waste-, and energy-intensive processes.

The annual available chitin in freshwater and marine ecosystems is roughly 600 and 1,600 million tons, respectively. Even though the United States is among the three largest seafood markets in the world, 85% of US seafood consumption depends on importation and only 5% is from US aquaculture production. Taking shrimp aquaculture for example; shrimp meat is pealed for food consumption, currently the main profit source, and the large amounts of shrimp shells are treated as waste and thrown away (at a cost), leading to environmental pollution. What if the shrimp shell waste is turned into valuable products and becomes the main source of profit?

Chitin and its deacetylated derivative, chitosan can be manufactured into many forms (fibers, films, high surface area nanomats, beads, hydrogels) and can be used in different industrial sectors such as water treatment, food processing, agriculture, nutrition, cosmetics, and medical applications. Due to chitin’s non-toxicity, non-allergenicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and bioactivity, diverse medicinal applications of chitin include both pharmacological and biotechnological materials and products. Emerging end-use biomedical applications include organ dressings, vascular implants, burn dressings, structural surgical implants, bio-textiles, and bone growth scaffolds, among others. Chitin can provide millions of dollars in revenues and have a significant impact on the economy if it is effectively isolated and used in high value products. This presentation will discuss this one example that illustrates the importance of the IL research in shell waste biomass processing and ultimately in delivering materials suitable for a myriad of applications that are still to be discovered. Development of such technologies requires creative thinking, changing the way we look at existing technologies, and push society away from a dependence on oil that grows steadily.