Utilization of Shrimp Skin Waste (Sea Lobster) As Raw Material for the Membrane Filtration

In view of the increasing littering of the sea banks by shells of crustaceans, a study was carried out to investigate the extraction and characterization of chitosan from skin waste of sea lobster i.e. ‘Bamboo Lobster’ (Panulirus versicolor). Chitosan was extracted using conventional methods such as pretreatment, demineralization, deprotienization, and deacetylation. The result showed that the degree of deacetylation of chitosan obtained is 70.02%. The FTIR spectra of the chitosan gave a characteristic of –NH2 band at 3447 cm-1 and carbonyl group band at 1655 cm-1. This chitosan has been used to prepare membrane. The chitosan membrane 2% has been prepared using phase inversion method with precipitation by solvent evaporation. The membranes were characterized by FTIR spectrophotometer, Nova 1200e using BJH method, and filtration method. The results show that thickness of the membrane is about 134 ?m. The FTIR spectra show that functional groups present in the membrane are -NH, -CH, C=O, and -OH. Using BJH method obtained that the pore diameter is 3.382 nm with pore density is 8.95 x 105 pores/m3. By filtration method obtained that pure water flux (PWF) of the membrane are 386.662 and 489.627 l/m2.h at pressure 80-85 kPa and 90-100 kPa, respectively. These results show that skin waste of sea lobster was discovered as a raw material to prepare chitosan membrane. The membrane obtained is belonged to mesoporous group which may use in microfiltration process.