Replacement biotechnology instead of chemical methods to converse chitin into chitosan

Chitin and chitosan are two very important biopolymer products that have so many usages in the high cost industries. Chitin Converts into chitosan via de-acetylation of chitin. It occurs by alkaline melting method in the absence of oxygen. Chemical structure change, severe environmental pollution and De-polymerization are of the major problems in producing high quality chitosan. In this study for conversion of chitin into chitosan fungus Aspergillus niger strains (ATHUM-10864), the generator of de-acetylases enzymes were used instead of chemicals. Chitosan quality was determined via elemental analysis infrared spectroscopy, X-ray tomography, molecular weight determination and estimation of crystallinity percent, color and molecular structure.The results showed 80±5% efficiency in the conversion of chitin into chitosan or de-acetylation degree of chitin. The gained chitosan contained of 44.4 % carbon, 8.9 % nitrogen, 2.7 % hydrogen and 39.5 % oxygen. The physical characteristics were as 94.5% Crystallinity and pale brown color. The chemical structure of per unit of chitosan was obtained as C6H12NO4. The results showed that replacing biological methods instead of chemicals was possible to access well quality products. It also eliminates the use of chemical materials such as concentrate sodium hydroxide that is damaging the environment.