4 Are Ionic Liquids Enabling Technology? Startup to Scale-Up …
81
biomass. The ability of Mari Signum to produce not only chitin itself but also products
from chitin will give Mari Signum a competitive advantage to diversify the range of
its products and to enter several profitable specialized markets.
4.4 Conclusion and Outcome
Chitin represents a billion-dollar industry worldwide, but despite the promising properties of chitin (and the large amounts of available shellfish waste in the United
States), its potential production at an industrial level has been scarcely explored.
There is no chitin producing plant in the United States mainly because of the current
environmentally unfriendly chitin isolation process. At the same time, chitin isolation extends far beyond producing chitin itself. There are many opportunities for
the manufacture of novel chitin products from shrimp shell waste that have not yet
been tapped. Such high-value products will cause high industrial growth and have a
positive environmental impact. A large enough chitin supply will be needed for the
chitin industry to become a game-changer in a sustainable society.
Even with a billion-dollar industry opportunity, our own experience demonstrates
that the transition of technology from academia to industry is rarely a straightforward
process. As the technology progressed, it required proceeding through several timeand effort-consuming stages with each one successively larger in scale—(bench,
pilot, demonstration, and production scale). Each stage used the knowledge accumulated from the previous round of scale-up. With the benefit of hindsight, this story
might be useful for others who are ready to take this journey.
Hopefully, chitin products will make existing plastics obsolete.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank 525 Solutions, Inc., U.S. Department of
Energy Small Business Innovation Research Program (DOE-SBIR Grant No. DE-SC0010152,
Phase I/II), and DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Energy University Programs (DOE NEUP
Grant No. DE-NE0000672) for financial support. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude
to Dr. Eric Schneider (University of Texas at Austin, Mechanical Engineering in Cockrell School
of Engineering) for the help with technology economic assessment, and Mr. Jonathan Bonner (Poly
Engineering, Tuscaloosa, AL) for the help with scaling up the equipment to the production scale.
References
1. Plastics market analysis by product (PE, PP, PVC, PET, polystyrene, engineering thermoplastics), by application (film & sheet, injection molding, textiles, packaging, transportation, construction) and segment forecasts to 2020. Grand View Research, Inc., 2015. Available at: http://
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-plastics-market. Last accessed 04-0218
2. University of Georgia (2017) More than 8.3 billion tons of plastics made: most has now been
discarded. Science Daily, 19 July 2017. Available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/
2017/07/170719140939.htm. Last accessed 12-10-19
81
biomass. The ability of Mari Signum to produce not only chitin itself but also products
from chitin will give Mari Signum a competitive advantage to diversify the range of
its products and to enter several profitable specialized markets.
4.4 Conclusion and Outcome
Chitin represents a billion-dollar industry worldwide, but despite the promising properties of chitin (and the large amounts of available shellfish waste in the United
States), its potential production at an industrial level has been scarcely explored.
There is no chitin producing plant in the United States mainly because of the current
environmentally unfriendly chitin isolation process. At the same time, chitin isolation extends far beyond producing chitin itself. There are many opportunities for
the manufacture of novel chitin products from shrimp shell waste that have not yet
been tapped. Such high-value products will cause high industrial growth and have a
positive environmental impact. A large enough chitin supply will be needed for the
chitin industry to become a game-changer in a sustainable society.
Even with a billion-dollar industry opportunity, our own experience demonstrates
that the transition of technology from academia to industry is rarely a straightforward
process. As the technology progressed, it required proceeding through several timeand effort-consuming stages with each one successively larger in scale—(bench,
pilot, demonstration, and production scale). Each stage used the knowledge accumulated from the previous round of scale-up. With the benefit of hindsight, this story
might be useful for others who are ready to take this journey.
Hopefully, chitin products will make existing plastics obsolete.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank 525 Solutions, Inc., U.S. Department of
Energy Small Business Innovation Research Program (DOE-SBIR Grant No. DE-SC0010152,
Phase I/II), and DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Energy University Programs (DOE NEUP
Grant No. DE-NE0000672) for financial support. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude
to Dr. Eric Schneider (University of Texas at Austin, Mechanical Engineering in Cockrell School
of Engineering) for the help with technology economic assessment, and Mr. Jonathan Bonner (Poly
Engineering, Tuscaloosa, AL) for the help with scaling up the equipment to the production scale.
References
1. Plastics market analysis by product (PE, PP, PVC, PET, polystyrene, engineering thermoplastics), by application (film & sheet, injection molding, textiles, packaging, transportation, construction) and segment forecasts to 2020. Grand View Research, Inc., 2015. Available at: http://
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-plastics-market. Last accessed 04-0218
2. University of Georgia (2017) More than 8.3 billion tons of plastics made: most has now been
discarded. Science Daily, 19 July 2017. Available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/
2017/07/170719140939.htm. Last accessed 12-10-19