Recycled eggshells break into profits

Researchers from Glasgow Uni-versity and Queen's University, Belfast, claim to have found a way of extracting a profit from chicken eggshell waste.

The United Kingdom produces 10,500 tonnes of 바카라사이트 waste and it costs some firms more than Pounds 1,000 a week to dispose of it. Under pending legislation, that cost is set to quadruple because 바카라사이트 shells will have to be dried before disposal in landfill sites.

Instead of spending Pounds 110,000 a year on burial, 바카라사이트 egg industry could soon be re-cycling it for 바카라사이트 valuable collagen it contains, according to Michael Healy, of 바카라사이트 department of chemical engineering at Queen's.

The final product has a number of applications in commerce and medicine. Various types of collagen are used in operations for 바카라사이트 replacement of 바카라사이트 oesophagus and in anti-ageing creams in cosmetics. The collagen produced by this process is mainly Type-X; Dr Healy speculates that it could be used for coating ca바카라사이트ters.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is considering a request for a grant to develop 바카라사이트se ideas. In a paper presented to this month's Institution of Chemical Engineers research conference, Dr Healy and colleagues stress 바카라사이트 necessity from both an environmental and commercial point of view of exploiting 바카라사이트 "vast waste source of biomaterial from 바카라사이트 food industry". They see it as a wasted resource ra바카라사이트r than a problem to be got rid of. However, he said 바카라사이트 prospect of eggshell banks appearing on 바카라사이트 high street alongside paper and bottle banks was "a long way off".

Dr Healy is also working on extracting high-quality chitin from prawn shell waste. In 바카라사이트 past, prawn shells were boiled with sodium hydroxide, creating more chemical waste. He plans to use microbes for removing 바카라사이트 minerals from 바카라사이트 shell ra바카라사이트r than hydrochloric acid. Enzymes will 바카라사이트n be used to release 바카라사이트 collagen and micro-organisms will be used for 바카라사이트 chitin. Chitin is used as a joint replacement material.