摘要
Chicken eggshell is one of the most common wastes generated from households,restaurants and other food processing outlets.Waste Chicken Eggshells(WCES)also constitutes an environmental nuisance and ends up discarded at dumping site with no consideration of further usage.The main constituent of WCES is calcium carbonate from which calcium or calcium oxide can be extracted for various applications.This current effort reviews recently published literature on the diverse applications of WCES.The considered utilization avenues include catalysts for biofuel production,construction industry,wastewater purification,industrial sector,food industry,medical,and agricultural applications.The specific areas of application apart from the transesterification reactions include cement additives and replacement in concrete,asphalt binder,adsorbent of metals and dyes,production of hydroxyapatite,food supplement and fortification,dentistry,therapeutics,bone formation,drug delivery,poultry feeds as well as organic fertilizer.For most of the identified applications,the WCES is subjected to pretreatment and other modification techniques before utilization.The conversion of WCES to valuable products is a cost-effective,safe,environmentally friendly,non-toxic and viable means of waste disposal and utilization.More investigations are needed to further explore the benefits derivable from this bioresource.
