Accessing biominerals from by-products wasted by the seafood processing industry

Abstract

Due to the global population's significant growth, the demand for seafood has increased exponentially over the last century. This has led to the generation of large amounts of inedible by-products from the seafood processing industry from a multitude of marine organisms, including finfish, mollusks, and crustaceans. In this review, the potential extraction and application of biominerals from waste bones and shells originating from the seafood processing industry are discussed. Existing reviews on fishery by-products often highlight only the potential of organic by-products and disregard the biominerals present. Shells always contain calcium carbonate, CaCO₃, in the form of either calcite or aragonite and bones are primarily made of hydroxyapatite, Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂. The conditions used in different extraction processes to isolate the mentioned biominerals and the resulting products are compared. Furthermore, we highlight the sustainability impact of sourcing natural biominerals for global applications (e.g., limestone industry) as this would prevent further environmental risks caused by improper disposal. Bio-derived minerals have also been used in other applications, such as environmental remediation and biomedicine. For calcium carbonate, the use of raw shells, their transformation to calcium oxide, CaO, and the production of precipitated calcium carbonate are presented. Next, we present in detail the isolation of hydroxyapatite from fish bones and scales, its transformation to other biphasic calcium phosphates, and its applications. The review concludes with a discussion on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to accessing biominerals wasted by the seafood processing industry.