[P002] Poster

1:00 PM - 1:50 PM JST(4:00 AM - 4:50 AM UTC)

[P01-130] Microwave Assisted Valorization of Fishery Waste: A Sustainable Route to High-Purity Chitosan Nanocarriers with Minimal Environmental Impact

○Afsheen Aman¹, Naureen Mallick², Asma Ansari¹, Fayaz Hussain³ (1. The Karachi Institute of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering (KIBGE), University of Karachi (Pakistan), 2. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi (Pakistan), 3. Department of Materials Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology (NEDUET) (Pakistan))

Keywords:

Green Metrics,Chitosan Nanocarriers,Characterization,Microwave Assisted Valorization,Marine Bio-waste

The escalating crisis of fishery-generated biowaste demands high efficiency valorization strategies to support a sustainable circular economy. This study demonstrates a transformative "waste-to-wealth" framework by extracting high-purity chitosan from marine byproducts using an energy-efficient, microwave-assimilated extraction (MAE) method. Compared to traditional thermal deacetylation, the MAE process significantly lowered energy intensity while achieving an exceptional extraction yield (78%), a high degree of deacetylation (81.2%), and a favorable simple E-factor of 30.44. Characterization revealed a crystallinity index of 81.71% and a crystallite size of 4.71 nm. These bioderived microparticles were subsequently engineered into chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) through a green, aqueous-based ionic gelation method at pH 2.8, bypassing toxic organic crosslinkers and hazardous surfactants. The resulting monodispersed formulation exhibited a mean particle size of 224.0 nm, a robust surface charge (zeta potential) of +49.0 mV, and a PDI of 0.41. XRD confirmed the transition to an amorphous state suitable for drug loading, while MTS assays validated a non-cytotoxic profile. By integrating renewable feedstock with low-energy processing, this study provides a scalable, eco-friendly blueprint for producing high-performance nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery.