Chicken Eggshell as an Innovative Bioflocculant in Harvesting Biofloc for Aquaculture Wastewater Treatment

Implementation of biofloc technology(BFT)system in aquaculture industry shows high productivity,low feed conversion ratio,and an optimum culture environment.This study was divided into two phases.The first phase involved maintaining the water quality using the optimum carbon-to-nitrogen ratio by manipulating pH in culture water.The second phase examined the performance of harvesting biofloc(remaining phytoplankton and suspended solids in the system)using chicken eggshell powder(CESP).This study showed that pH 7 to 8 were the best biofloc performance with high removal percentage of ammonia(>99%)with a remaining ammonia concentration of 0.016 mg L^(−1)and 0.018 mg L^(−1),respectively.The second phase of this study was performed to determine the optimal formulation and conditions of using CESP as a bio-flocculant in harvesting excess biofloc.The use of eggshell showed a higher harvesting efficiency of more than 80%under the following treatment conditions:0.25 g L^(−1)of eggshell dosage;with rapid and slow mixing rates of 150 and 30 rpm,respectively;30 min of settling time;settling velocity of 0.39 mm s^(−1)and pH of 6 to 7.Therefore,the results indicated that biofloc would be the best green technology approach for sustainable aquaculture wastewater and the CESP is an organic matrix that environmental-friendly bio-coagulant for biofloc harvesting.

Pathways for Sustainable Utilization of Waste Chicken Eggshell

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.

Expression analysis for candidate genes associated with eggshell mechanical property

Damaged eggshells result in losses of eggs.The genetic mechanism of variable eggshell strength is still unclear.The current study was conducted to verify whether the eggshell calcification related genes,CALB1,SPP1,DMP4,BMP2 and SLIT2,were associated with eggshell mechanical property.For this purpose quantitative PCR（q-PCR） analysis was performed to detect gene expression between two groups of hens laying strong and weak eggs.The hens were selected from 360 White Leghorn layers at 60 wk to ensure that the strong and weak eggs differed significantly in breaking strength but not in eggshell thickness and weight.Using this special strong/weak eggshell model,we found that the expression of CALB1 in the uterus of strong shell group was about 3-fold higher（P〈0.05） than that in weak shell group.The DMP4 expression was significantly higher（2-fold,P〈0.05） in the uterus of weak shell group than that in strong shell group.However,no difference was observed for genes of SPP1,SLIT2 and BMP2 between these two groups.The current study provides a new insight to investigate the association of candidate genes with eggshell mechanical property.

Development of a composite catalyst from anthill and eggshell:an optimization study on biodiesel production from virgin and waste vegetable oils

The primary goal of this study is to develop a composite material from the anthill and chicken eggshell and to use it as a catalyst for the synthesis of biodiesel from virgin and waste vegetable oils.The anthill-eggshell composite(AEC)catalyst was prepared using an incipient wetness impregnation method.Central composite design(CCD)was applied to investigate the effects of catalyst preparation parameters(calcination temperature,calcination time,and anthill proportion in the AEC)on the yields of biodiesel from the two oils.Based on the CCD,two quadratic models were developed to correlate the AEC preparation parameters to the two responses.Analysis of variance(ANOVA)was performed to verify the reliability of the models and also,identify the factor that mostly affects the experimental design responses.Optimization results showed that the predicted values of biodiesel yield from the models for the two oils agreed reasonably well with the experimental values.The optimum conditions for the preparation of AEC catalyst for the transesterification process were calcination temperature of 1000℃,calcination time of 4 h,and anthill proportion of 20% to achieve 97.13%yield of biodiesel from virgin vegetable oil.At the same optimum parameters,the yield of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil was found to be 70.92%.