Shrimp, egg shells eyed vs oil spills

BEFORE you throw those shrimp shells and eggshells into the bin, think again.

These kitchen trash may soon be the country’s best solution to oil spills.

Filipino scientists from the Department of Science and Technology’s Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) are currently working on a “green reversing technology” using shrimp shells and eggshells to rid the country’s waters of oil spills that not only damage marine resources but also affect the livelihood of coastal communities that rely on them.

Emelda Ongo, team leader of the five-man team from ITDI’s environmental and biotechnology division working on the research, said they have developed a mixture of chitosan and calcium carbonate using the household waste materials to absorb the oil from the water.

Chitosan is found in the shells of crabs, lobsters and shrimps, while calcium carbonate is a component found in eggshells. While chitosan is often used as a biopesticide, Ongo said its industrial use as a sorbent material for removing oil in water is gaining ground in the scientific community.

“While most have been using pure chitosan as sorbent material, we have chosen to work on chitosan and calcium carbonate. [It’s] because these are waste materials that are cheap, can be reused and widely available,” Ongo said in a statement.

She added that chitosan’s film-forming ability and the surface roughness in calcium carbonate “make them excellent sorbent materials.”

Ongo noted that to this day, cleaning up oil spills remains a “great challenge” because of such factors as the lack of technology and expertise, varying types of shorelines and the financial burden of carrying it out.