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%0 Thesis
%A Helbig, Carlos A.
%T Development of a sustainable process for the valorization of chitin from marine waste streams using the chitinolytic bacterium Photobacterium arenosum
%I RWTH Aachen University
%V Dissertation
%C Aachen
%M RWTH-2025-07909
%P 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen
%D 2025
%Z Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University
%Z Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2025
%X Chitin is an abundant and renewable yet underutilized resource. Short chitin-degradation products with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 1-20 exhibit diverse bioactive properties, such as anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity, as well as the stimulation of hyaluronic acid production. However, current chitin purification methods require toxic chemicals, posing an environmental hazard. This study aimed to develop a sustainable process for the valorization of underutilized chitin from marine sources using the marine bacterium Photobacterium arenosum called Chi5. The research aimed to evaluate Chi5's capability to metabolize various chitinous substrates, generate biomass, and produce chitinolytic enzymes. It further aimed to produce chitin-degradation products, evaluate the efficiency of the produced enzymes, and to purify the enzymatic reaction products using scalable methods. The study was divided into five chapters, each contributing to the development of the final process to produce short chitin-degradation products from chitinous substrates obtained from waste streams. Chapter 1 explored the biotechnological potential of the marine bacterium Chi5 to metabolize chitin by cultivating it with different chitinous substrates as nutrient source. The analysis of growth curves presented in this study employed a series of sigmoid models, i.e., logistic, Boltzmann, and Gompertz models, allowing to rank the growth curves based on relative performance and evaluate Chi5’s ability to valorize chitinous substrates. The integrals of the exponential phases were computed and divided by the length of their corresponding exponential phase providing an overall growth performance score value to rank the curves. Chemical de-mineralization of chitinous substrates from Chinese mitten crab and brown shrimp significantly increased growth performance from 32
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)11
%9 Dissertation / PhD Thesis
%R 10.18154/RWTH-2025-07909
%U https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/1018636