Abirami Ramu Ganesan
Research Scientist
Authors
Divya Karthick Rajan Durairaj Karthick Rajan Jayakumar Rajarajeswaran Nagarajan Revathi Shubing Zhang Kannan Mohan Abirami Ramu GanesanAbstract
Edible coleopteran insects are an important source for sustainable protein and generating chitin as a significant waste (exuviae, cuticle residues, and frass), which can be valorized into value-added biopolymers. These side-streams can be diverted for chitin and chitosan production due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability in biomaterial applications which gained attention in recent times. Therefore, this review evaluates various types of chitin and chitosan extractions and their structural characterization suitable for industrial applications. The nutritional and bioactive functionalities of chitin as derived from coleoptera insect side-streams were critically discussed. Furthermore, it also distinguishes the presence of α-, β-, and γ-chitin polymorphic forms exhibited in the coleopterans order with recent research gaps was also discussed herein. Currently, there is no literature review that describes the roles of coleopteran side-streams derived chitin and chitosan. Hence, this review not only underscores the potential for chitin production from coleopteran side-streams but also outlines critical bottlenecks that warrant further investigation in biopolymer chemistry. Moreover, it provides comprehensive recommendations to facilitate the scale-up of chitin and chitosan derived from coleopteran side-streams as an added advantage for new business models.
Abstract
Brown seaweed A.nodosum has been widely used for feed and biostimulant purposes for many years. However, due to its high-water content (ranging >80% MC) it presents challenges like increasing costs of transportation and storage for downstream processing. Therefore, an effective dewatering step is essential to reduce the moisture content, concentrate the biomass and improve handling and processing efficiency. Mechanical dewatering is commonly applied as a pretreatment step in biorefining as it removes readily mobile water and reduces the moisture available for microbial deterioration during handling and storage. However, the efficiency of mechanical dewatering can be limited by the strong water-holding capacity of seaweed tissues and cell-wall components, resulting in substantial residual moisture in the pressed biomass. In this context, this study evaluates calcium chloride (CaCl2 ) and magnesium chloride (MgCl2 ) as pretreatment agents prior to hydraulic pressing of A. nodosum, assessing their effects on dewatering efficiency and the partitioning of protein-bound amino acids between the liquid and solid fractions.
Abstract
Brown seaweeds are rich in sulphated polysaccharides, minerals, proteins, and other bioactive compounds suitable for cascading biorefinery. Ascophyllum nodosum, an abundant North Atlantic species, contains fucoidan, laminarin, and mannitol with potential food and feed applications. Efficient utilisation requires fractionation strategies that recover target compounds while enabling further valorisation of the remaining biomass. Here, a food-compatible process using water and citric acid was applied to recover fucoidan- and alginate-rich fractions and retain residual biomass for further use. Material distribution, concentration efficiency, and recovery were evaluated across the process, which recovered 57.3% of the initial dry biomass as value-added products.
Division of Food Production and Society
OceanGreen: Maximizing Economic Value through Restored Kelp Forests and Sustainable Fisheries
The OceanGreen project aims to restore and protect kelp forests along the Norwegian coast, develop sea urchin removal technologies, and create commercially viable products from harvested sea urchins. It focuses on kelp forest restoration, scalable technologies, sea urchin utilisation, collaboration, and coastal community revitalisation. Ava Ocean is the project owner, you'll find a link to their their project-site on the left side of this page.
Division of Food Production and Society
AquaUP - Aquafeed Upgraded: Enhancing Immune Function of Fish with Seaweed-modified Functional Compounds
The aquaculture industry is anticipating intensive production growth to meet future food demand. Yet, this growth is constrained by a number of challenges, not least including disease spread and use of antibiotics and chemicals to combat or reduce disease outbreaks.