Continuous Extraction of Chitin and Carotenoids from Shrimp Waste with Chemical Solvents

The carotenoids and chitin are two kinds of valuable materials which used in different industries. The wastage of shrimp products is one of the cheapest and suitable feedstock to produce carotenoids and chitin. This method decreases the environmental contamination and increase the economical portion in the shrimp production. In this research the extraction of carotenoids and chitin from shrimp waste by chemical solvents continuously and with high yield is undertaken. In this method at first the carotenoids were extracted with semicountiniues method by soxhelt with the yield of 115μg/g much higher than the yield in batch method (43.9μg/g). After the extraction of carotenoids the remaining was used for extracting chitin and producing chitosan, in which the yield of chitin was 28% and the yield of chitosan (with deacetylation of chitin) 50%.