Isolation and characterization chitosan from varied crab shell

Abstract

Crab shells chitosan processing consists of 3 steps, the process is deproteinization,
demineralization, and deacetylation. This study aims to produce chitosan with a high yield as
an alternative to natural adsorbents and coagulants. This research was conducted using three
different raw materials for crab shells, namely mangrove crab shells (K1), small crab shells
(K2), and kappa crab shells (K3). In this study, a demineralization process was carried out on
dried crab shells using strong acids. Furthermore, deproteination is carried out using a strong
base to obtain chitin and deacetylation with a strong base to produce chitosan. The results of
research carried out observations including moisture content, ash content, solubility, and yield.
The results of the isolation of the crab shell chitosan obtained the chitosan yields of 31%,
32.2%, and 24.5%, respectively.