Abstract
Every year, millions of tons of fish waste are generated from fishing activities, and a similar amount is discarded and returned to the sea as unwanted catches. This material can be used as a biological source for many potential new added-value products, such asobtaining hyaluronic acid from fish eyeballs or extracting collagen from fish skin, but there are not many utilities for fish bones yet. This work tackles the transformation of fish discards into calcium phosphates. Discards from scorpionfish (Scorpaena scrofa) and Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), as well as by-products generated from aquaculture activities (heads and trimmings frames) of salmon (Salmon salar), were used to obtain calcium phosphate. Biphasic carbonated hydroxyapatite (HA) /beta-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) material was obtained. The biphasic HA-TCP material has a promising range of applications in the biomedical field based on its similarity to calcium phosphates found in human bones in terms of crystallite size and carbonate content. The presence of Na, Mg, Sr, and K ions in the HA-TCP material is very beneficial, since they contribute to bone metabolism and cell adhesion.
Highlights
Fish discarding is the practice of returning unwanted catches, either dead or alive, back to the sea
Biogenic calcium phosphate has been obtained from fish discards, giving them an additional application as a cheap raw material that does not have any negative effect on the environment
The powders obtained consisted of a biphasic material whose major component was B-type carbonated hydroxyapatite and a minor amount of beta-tricalcium phosphate
Summary
Fish discarding is the practice of returning unwanted catches, either dead or alive, back to the sea This could occur due to economic reasons such as market demands or fishermen quota levels, or because the sizes of the species do not meet minimum requirements. This is a serious problem according to data provided by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), which estimates that nearly 50% of the more than 90 million tons of fish and shellfish caught globally each year are discarded [1]. The degradation of the large amount of fish waste generated by fish processing units in coastal cities can have a very
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
