# Chitin & chitosan Chitin from crustacean shells and fungal biomass, converted to chitosan for water-treatment flocculants, medical hemostatics, agricultural biostimulants and biodegradable packaging. Source: https://en.bioecon.ru/technology/chitin-chitosan/ Updated: 2026-08-18 ## Overview and value chain Markers: [EC: Circular Bioeconomy Strategy & REACH Regulation | OECD: bio-materials | Regulator: FDA (US, GRAS), EFSA (EU, Novel Foods), REACH (EU)] Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth after cellulose, forming the shells of crabs, shrimp and lobster, insect exoskeletons, and fungal cell walls; chitosan, its deacetylated derivative, carries a cationic charge in mildly acidic conditions that gives it flocculant, biocidal, biocompatible and film-forming properties unmatched by most other biopolymers. By 2026 the sector has grown from a simple seafood-waste disposal channel into a dedicated biopolymer industry: Tidal Vision's Tidal Clear platform pairs its ACHPlus hybrid coagulant (alkaline ferric chloride plus precision chitosan formulations) to cut chemical use and sludge in water treatment, while remaining a closed-loop, non-toxic alternative to synthetic polyacrylamide flocculants. On the medical side, Germany's Heppe Medical Chitosan (HMC) supplies pharmaceutical-grade chitosan and custom oligomers under GMP conditions to European drug developers. Iceland's Primex, based in Siglufjörður, derives its ChitoClear product line from deep-water shrimp (*Pandalus borealis*) shells and has extended into cosmetic-grade ChitoCare ingredients for skincare. Belgium's KitoZyme takes a different sourcing route entirely — fermentation-derived fungal chitosan, certified and marketed as a vegan alternative to synthetic and crustacean-derived polymers for health, beauty and agriculture applications. The key directions of the chitin/chitosan value chain are: 1. **Technical chitin:** the semi-finished product from demineralized, deproteinized crustacean shells, used as chitosan feedstock or an animal-feed additive. 2. **Industrial (water-treatment-grade) chitosan:** moderately deacetylated (75-85%) chitosan used as a biodegradable coagulant/flocculant for industrial and municipal wastewater, removing heavy metals and oils. 3. **Agricultural-grade chitosan:** used as a seed treatment and foliar spray that acts as an elicitor, activating plants' natural defense genes against fungal and viral pathogens and reducing chemical-pesticide reliance. 4. **High-purity medical/pharma-grade chitosan:** ultra-high deacetylation (>95%), minimal ash content (<0.2%) and no detectable protein or endotoxin residue, used in sutures, tissue-engineering scaffolds and controlled-release drug systems. ### Sectoral value chain ``` [Crustacean Shells] ──> [Demineralization & Deproteinization] ──> [Thermochemical Deacetylation] │ │ │ (Seafood-processing waste) (Purified chitin recovery) (Conversion to chitosan) │ [End Products (Medical, Packaging)] <─── [Reprecipitation & Dialysis] <────┘ ``` ### Value chain levels | Level | Description | Key inputs/outputs | |:---|:---|:---| | **1. Sourcing** | Collecting and drying crab, shrimp and krill shells generated by seafood processing. | **In:** Wet crustacean shells, drying equipment.
**Out:** Dried, flesh-free shells. | | **2. Demineralization** | Removing calcium carbonate from the shell structure using dilute hydrochloric acid. | **In:** Dried shells, dilute HCl (0.5-2M).
**Out:** Demineralized shell intermediate. | | **3. Deproteinization** | Removing the protein matrix and carotenoid pigments (astaxanthin) by cooking in dilute alkali. | **In:** Demineralized shell, dilute NaOH (1-5%).
**Out:** Purified white flaked chitin. | | **4. Deacetylation** | Hydrolyzing chitin's acetamide groups with concentrated alkali at high temperature to yield soluble chitosan. | **In:** Dry chitin, concentrated NaOH (40-50%), heat.
**Out:** Crude solid chitosan. | | **5. Refining** | Dissolving chitosan in organic acid, filtering out particulates, and reprecipitating with alkali. | **In:** Crude chitosan, dilute acetic acid, dialysis membranes.
**Out:** High-purity water-soluble chitosan salt. | | **6. Application** | Manufacturing final forms: nonwoven medical fibers, films, encapsulated nanoparticles or liquid agricultural elicitors. | **In:** Purified dry chitosan, forming equipment.
**Out:** Hemostatic dressings, biodegradable packaging, agricultural products. | Cross-cutting technologies of the sector: - **Enzymatic deacetylation:** an alternative to harsh alkaline hydrolysis using recombinant chitin deacetylases (marine or fungal), operating at mild temperature (37°C) and neutral pH to produce chitosan with tightly controlled acetylation patterns without polymer-chain degradation. - **Deep eutectic solvent (DES) extraction:** environmentally benign solvent mixtures (e.g., choline chloride/urea) that remove both calcium and protein from raw shells simultaneously, avoiding mineral acids/alkalis entirely and preserving astaxanthin as a valuable antioxidant byproduct. - **Electrospinning of chitosan nanofibers:** drawing ultrafine chitosan fibers (50-200 nm diameter) from a trifluoroacetic-acid solution under a strong electric field, creating highly porous matrices that mimic skin extracellular matrix for accelerated deep-burn healing. --- ## US The US leads in chitosan-based packaging innovation and military-grade emergency hemostatic products. ### closed-loop water-treatment chitosan, military hemostatic gauze, FDA/EPA regulatory routes - **Tidal Vision:** its Tidal Clear platform, including the ACHPlus hybrid coagulant (alkaline ferric chloride plus precision chitosan formulations), reduces chemical use and sludge volume in water treatment as a closed-loop, non-toxic alternative to synthetic polyacrylamide. - **Military hemostatics:** the US Department of Defense procures high-purity chitosan-based hemostatic dressings (such as Celox-type bandages), whose positively charged chitosan binds instantly to negatively charged red-blood-cell membranes to form a clot even in severe arterial wounds under hypothermic conditions. - **Regulatory routes:** the EPA has certified chitosan as a broad-spectrum biopesticide for organic farming, while the FDA classifies medical-grade chitosan under strict device requirements, demanding biocompatibility testing and shellfish-protein-residue screening to avoid anaphylaxis risk in shellfish-allergic patients. --- ## CN China is the global volume leader in crustacean-shell processing, concentrating enormous technical chitin and chitosan capacity in its coastal provinces — no single Chinese producer was confirmed via live sourcing for this article, but the country's industrial and agricultural chitosan applications are well documented at scale. ### Shandong processing scale, industrial wastewater treatment, agricultural chitosan scale-up - **Coastal processing scale:** Shandong province concentrates a large share of the world's chitin and chitosan production capacity, processing shrimp shells sourced from domestic aquaculture and imports from Southeast Asia. - **Industrial wastewater treatment:** Chinese textile and electroplating plants use technical chitosan to capture heavy-metal ions (chromium, copper, nickel) and synthetic dyes from effluent, supporting compliance with China's "Green Mountains, Clean Waters" environmental program. - **Agricultural biostimulant scale-up:** Chinese agrochemical producers manufacture water-soluble chitosan oligosaccharides at large volume, sprayed on rice and vegetable crops to improve drought and fungal-disease resistance. --- ## EU The EU is the world's leading center for ultra-pure medical-grade chitosan and circular biodegradable packaging under the bloc's plastic-reduction strategy. ### medical-grade chitosan manufacturing, circular packaging R&D, EFSA plant-protection approval - **Heppe Medical Chitosan (Germany):** supplies pharmaceutical-grade chitosan and custom chitosan oligomers under GMP conditions to European drug developers and researchers. - **Primex (Iceland):** derives its ChitoClear chitosan line from deep-water shrimp (*Pandalus borealis*) shells sourced in the North Atlantic, and has extended into cosmetic-grade ChitoCare ingredients for skincare formulations. - **KitoZyme (Belgium):** produces fermentation-derived fungal chitosan, certified and marketed as a vegan alternative to synthetic and crustacean-sourced polymers for health, beauty and agricultural applications. - **EFSA approval:** the European Food Safety Authority has listed chitosan hydrochloride as an approved "basic substance" for plant protection across the EU, giving farmers a legal alternative to synthetic fungicides in organic agriculture. --- ## Leading companies and research institutes | Company / Institute | Country | Key products / platforms | Tech features | Status 2026 | |:---|:---|:---|:---|:---| | **Tidal Vision** | 🇺🇸 USA | *Tidal Clear*, ACHPlus coagulant | Closed-loop chitosan extraction, industrial water treatment | commercial | | **Heppe Medical Chitosan** | 🇩🇪 Germany | Pharmaceutical-grade chitosan, custom oligomers | GMP manufacturing for drug-delivery research | commercial | | **Primex** | 🇮🇸 Iceland | *ChitoClear*, *ChitoCare* | Deep-water shrimp-shell sourcing, cosmetic-grade lines | commercial | | **KitoZyme** | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Fermentation-derived fungal chitosan | Vegan, non-crustacean chitosan source | commercial | --- ## Tech stack and innovations Modern chitosan production relies on the following equipment and process stack: 1. **Continuous demineralization reactors:** - Crushed shell feedstock is fed continuously into a cascade of titanium stirred reactors dosed with dilute hydrochloric acid; automated pH sensors hold the reaction at pH 1.5-2.0 to prevent premature protein hydrolysis, while the resulting CO2 is captured and calcium chloride is recovered. 2. **High-pressure alkaline deacetylation autoclaves:** - Dry purified chitin is loaded into 316L stainless-steel reactors with 50% NaOH solution, held under up to 3 bar pressure at 110-120°C; conductivity sensors monitor the degree of acetyl-group removal in real time, automatically stopping the reaction at the target parameters. 3. **Wet-spinning nonwoven fiber lines:** - A pressurized medical-grade chitosan/acetic-acid solution is extruded through spinnerets with thousands of 50-micron microholes into an alkaline coagulation bath, instantly forming continuous filaments that are washed, drawn and wound for weaving into hemostatic gauze. --- ## Value chains and production pipelines ### Industrial pipeline of high-purity medical-grade chitosan via controlled thermochemical extraction (ISO 13485/GMP) ``` ┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 1. Crab shell crushing & │ ───> │ 2. Demineralization │ │ washing │ │ (dilute HCl) │ └───────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 4. Deacetylation │ <─── │ 3. Deproteinization │ │ (NaOH, 110°C) │ │ (dilute NaOH) │ └───────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 5. Purification, │ ───> │ 6. Drying & deacetylation │ │ reprecipitation, dialysis│ │ degree control │ └───────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘ ``` #### Stage 1: Raw material preparation and crab-shell crushing Dried king crab (*Paralithodes camtschaticus*) shells pass through a magnetic separator to remove metal contaminants, are crushed to 2-4mm particle size in a knife mill, washed in hot deionized water to remove residual salt and sand, and dried to under 8% moisture. #### Stage 2: Chemical demineralization Crushed shells are loaded into a titanium demineralization reactor with 1.0M hydrochloric acid (1:10 solid:liquid ratio), reacted at 20°C for 4 hours with continuous stirring; the released CO2 is vented, calcium carbonate fully dissolves, and the product is filtered and washed to neutral pH. #### Stage 3: Deproteinization The desalted shell is transferred to a stainless-steel reactor with 5% sodium hydroxide solution (1:15 ratio), heated to 85°C for 6 hours under vigorous stirring, fully hydrolyzing the protein matrix and removing the astaxanthin pigment; the resulting technical chitin flakes are washed to neutral pH and vacuum-dried to under 5% moisture. #### Stage 4: Thermochemical deacetylation Dry purified chitin is loaded into a deacetylation autoclave with concentrated 50% NaOH (1:20 ratio), sealed under 2 bar pressure and heated to 110°C for 8 hours; for ultra-high deacetylation (>95%), the reaction is halted after 4 hours, the alkali is drained and replaced with a fresh 50% NaOH charge for a further 4 hours, then the hot alkali is drained and the resulting solid chitosan is washed until the filtrate reaches pH 7.0. #### Stage 5: Dissolution, filtration, reprecipitation and dialysis For medical-grade purity, chitosan is dissolved in 2% ultra-pure L-lactic acid at 40°C to form a 1.5% viscous solution, pressure-filtered through a cascade of depth polypropylene filters down to 1-micron pore size, then slowly precipitated with 5% ammonia to pH 8.5, forming a white gel that is washed by tangential-flow ultrafiltration (dialysis) until conductivity drops below 10 microsiemens/cm. #### Stage 6: Drying, milling and final quality control The purified chitosan gel is centrifuged, freeze-dried at -45°C under deep vacuum for 36 hours, then jet-milled in a sterile zone to under 100-micron particle size; QC confirms degree of deacetylation above 95.0% by proton-NMR, dynamic viscosity of a 1% acetic-acid solution, ash content under 0.2%, no detectable protein by Bradford assay, heavy metals under 0.1 ppm, and bacterial endotoxins under 0.1 EU/mg by LAL test before packaging for pharmaceutical supply.