ENCHANCT ASEAN PROJECT

Eco-efficient Nanochitosan Plant as ASEAN Blue Economy Pioneer

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The basic concept of this plant is originated with the idea of Blue Economy, which aims to
optimally use the local resources to develop self-sufficiency and fair trades. The commodity to be
processed is the crab shell wastes, as an important part of the potential marine-based business. The
crab shell is converted into chitosan, which will be sold in two forms: 1) as the suspension of nanochitosan for preservation agent (as "society-oriented product " sold at very low prices as the plants
social outreach to the surrounding community), 2) as pharmaceutical grade chitosan powder (as a
"commercial product" sold at high price to guarantee the plant profitability). By optimizing the ratio
between these two products, the plant will be highly profitable on one hand, while maintaining its
social responsibility for the surrounding society by providing safe and cheap preservation agent to
enhance the marine-based business at the society level. The plant is intended to be the pioneer of
marine-based technology and hence, the best location is South Sulawesi, which is predicted to be the
hub of marine business in the future.
The process takes ground shell crab ( 50 mesh ) as raw materials. Size reduction is carried out
in Cone crusher ( CC-101 ) and ball mill ( BM-101 ). Firstly, chitin is isolated from the shell crab.
Chitin isolation process consists of deproteination (82.57 % conversion) and demineralization process
(99.08 % conversion). Conversion of chitin into chitosan and nano-chitosan consists of deacetylation
and the production of nano-chitosan suspension. The reactants used are NaOH solution (in the
deproteination and deacetylation reactor) and HCl solution (in demineralization reactor). The plant
operates as a series of batch processes with the residence time of about 2 days, with careful
scheduling strategy between batches.
The production of nano-chitosan is based on pH adjustment, whereby the pH of chitosan
dissolved in 1.50% acetic acid solution is gradually raised upto very close to its isoelectric pH (6.5).
The process is carried out by slowly adding the residual NaOH solution from deacetylation process.
The plant scheduling is based on Gant Chart optimum system, where the total time used
consisted of charging, processing, emptying, and cleaning. The time for deproteination,
demineralization, and deacetylation reactor is 0.83 hours, 13.33 hours, and 6.67 hours respectively.
Operating conditions in all equipment are mild (atmospheric pressure and moderate temperatures up
to 105C). Deproteination reactor and demineralization reactor are run at isothermal and adiabatic
conditions, while deacetylation reactor runs isothermally and non-adiabatic. The heat is supplied by
saturated steam (1.50 atm and 115C). The heating process uses coil M-102 and R-DAS-201. The HE
circulation heating method is also performed at the IT-101.
The economic analysis concludes the plants economic attractiveness. It is based on several
parameters, namely BEP about 43.78 %, IRR as much as 31.45 %, and annual profit of Rp 254
billion. In terms of the environment, waste disposed is also safe because it contains only salt and free
from B3 and radioactive waste. On top of the attractive profitability, the plant is not only profit
oriented but also carries a visionary spirit to encourage the growth of marine-based business in the
surrounding society by providing cheap and safe preservation in the form of nano-chitosan suspension
and cheap nutritional fish feed from the deproteination waste. The ratio between highly priced
chitosan powder and the cheap nano-chitosan suspension is carefully calculated to obtain the
aforementioned economic attractiveness.

IChEC 2014
Designing Bio-based Commodity Chemical Plant to empower ASEAN Economic Community ( AEC )

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