20.500.12556/DKUM-98094 Environmental and energy perspectives of a sustainable shrimp shell waste biorefinery process Seafood processing generates large volumes of waste, particularly crustacean shells, which are often discarded or incinerated despite containing valuable compounds. This study evaluates the environmental impact and energy consumption of a shrimp shell biorefinery using sustainable solvents to produce high-value products like proteins, chitin, astaxanthin, and calcium carbonate. The laboratory-scale process was scaled up to pilot scale (1 t/day) using two approaches for evaluating energy consumption at different scales – (1) calculations using equations from literature and (2) process simulation software modelling, and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed for both scales. Energy analysis showed a significant difference: 5882.2 kWh/kg chitin at laboratory-scale vs. 36.0 kWh/kg at pilot-scale. LCA results show substantially lower environmental impacts at pilot scale across all categories, primarily due to reduced energy demand. Shell valorisation reduces the overall environmental impacts by minimising waste and avoiding waste treatment. Importantly, the solvents used showed comparatively lower environmental contributions than dominant process drivers such as energy consumption and shrimp production, supporting their suitability for use in sustainable biorefinery systems. biorefinery shrimp shells process design life cycle assessment energy analysis scale-up biorafinerije lupine kozic življenjski cikel true false true Elsevier B.V. Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/results-in-engineering © 2026 The Authors Članek v reviji 2026-05-15 09:54:51 2026-05-15 09:54:51 2026-05-16 03:14:28 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 12 str. Vol. 30, [article no.] 110774 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2025-09-23 2026-04-28 2026-04-29 66 278095363 10.1016/j.rineng.2026.110774 2590-1230 1-s2.0-S2590123026018074-main.pdf 1-s2.0-S2590123026018074-main.pdf 1 8929C25B010BF82E7F06F16DCB8870DC 2a98fbf8a7e8c3a26d5282ec103294348160585101775813e80c8a947b9a625c 326ca123-5034-11f1-9c27-00155d0001a1 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=206122 Fakulteta za kemijo in kemijsko tehnologijo 0 0 0