Context and objectives
The project aims to develop an alternative process to those conventionally used in the production of chitin and chitosan from crustacean waste using as unique solvent water in sub and supercritical conditions. The possibility to tune water physico-chemical proprieties with changes in pressure and temperature together with the control of residence time in ultrafast reactors developed in the research group will be exploited to fractionate the crustacean waste into proteins, chitin (isolated and associated to calcium carbonate), and for the transformation of chitin into-chitosan will be explored. Further, use of the isolated chitin as proof of concept for development of either stabilizers of emulsions, packing material or catalyst support will be addressed
Candidate skills
Candidates should have a at least 300 ECTS passed as Degree + Master to have access to PhD studies. Degree and Master studies: Engineering or Science, preferably in the areas of Chemical, Industrial Technology, Process, Materials, Food and Biotechnology (or related topics
Tasks
The specific tasks to be developed in the contract are: 1. Extraction of bioactive compounds by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction from shrimp waste previously pre-treatment with innovative processes (i.e. microwaves) 2. Protein extraction of shrimp waste using subcritical water. Characterization of Chitin-Calcium Carbonate composites 3. Transformation of chitin into chitosan using supercritical water. 4. Production of chitin/chitosan and CaCO3 materials and composites. Development of material as proof of concept. 5. Actions to disseminate project results: Preparation of follow-up project reports, communications to congresses and publications