Commercial exploitation of marine collagen and chitin from marine sources (BlueCC

The BlueCC project aims to take underutilised sources of marine biomass, such as invasive marine species, bycatch and cleaner fish from the aquaculture industry to develop new eco-friendly marine ingredients and products in a market acceptance approach. The focus will be on sustainably exploiting chitin/chitosan and collagen
produced by invasive crabs, jellyfish, starfish and cleaner fish, respectively, and demonstrate prototype products containing these polymers and/or their hydrolysates.
To succeed with product development of research-intense products such as chitin/chitosan and collagen, we will apply a strong emphasis on market needs and insights throughout the project. BlueCC will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team and is divided into four main work packages addressing: (i) market driven concept
development, (ii) sustainable chitin/chitosan and collagen demonstrators, (iii) characterization of the novel marine ingredients, including e.g. anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects, and finally (iv) commercialization feasibility in an RRI framework.
Altogether, BlueCC will in a sustainable and efficient manner exploit underutilized marine raw materials, from laboratory to prototype demonstration, to reach collagen- and chitin/chitosan-based bioactive demonstrators with potential commercial uses reaching the Technology Readiness Level 7.