Commercial exploitation of chitin and collagen from marine sources

In the EU, up to 138 million tons of biowaste are generated annually, much of which ends up in landfills. Chitin, an insoluble polymer derived from crustacean shells, for example, as well as marine collagen (from fishing waste and bycatch), are found in many species, including invasive species, and offer enormous value-added potential. Due to a lack of utilization pathways, the biomass from marine bycatch and the aquaculture industry cannot yet be efficiently utilized.

To meet the objectives of the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy for the sustainable and responsible management of marine resources, efforts are needed to harness marine biomass to create high-quality bio-based products for the cosmetics, health, and food sectors.

BlueCC aims to develop new environmentally friendly processes to sustainably and efficiently convert previously unused marine biomass into valuable and novel raw material sources for the food, health, and cosmetics sectors. The project brings together the complementary expertise of eight European partners in a unique research environment to advance the development of sustainable chitin- and collagen-based product demonstrators. The commercialization of these demonstrators within the framework of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is also a focus of the BlueCC project.

At Fraunhofer IME, a marine microorganism isolated from coastal sediments and its natural ability to enzymatically convert chitin-containing substrates will be further researched and utilized to develop a sustainable and cost-efficient fermentation process for the valorization of chitin-rich residual streams. The microbial conversion of chitin substrates into various natural fermentation products—such as chitosan, chito-oligosaccharides (COS), glucosamine, single-cell protein, enzymes, or other as-yet-unknown compounds—will be scaled up to a demonstrator level.