June 18, 2004

Student Researchers Look at Grinding Pork Skins Into Biomedical Gold

Drs. Daubert (left) and Peretti (Photos: Herman Lankford)

Pork skins aren’t just for breakfast anymore. Chemical engineering and food science students at North Carolina State University recently collaborated on a senior design project that would not only turn pork skins into valuable biomedical material but could also address some pressing economic and environmental concerns facing North Carolina — how to add value to hog wastes and increase manufacturing jobs.

According to the team of students and their faculty research mentors, a key lies in the development of a high-grade gelatin manufacturing plant in North Carolina. High-grade gelatin is a primary component of pharmaceutical drug capsules, as well as breakthrough medical devices such as wound dressings and plasma substitutes. The best raw material for the derivation of gelatin is pork skin. Currently, North Carolina is the second leading pork processor in the nation with nearly 75 million kilograms of skins produced annually, yet almost all gelatin is produced in the Midwest.

Dr. Chris R. Daubert, one of the team’s mentors and an associate professor of food science and engineering at NC State, said the question of building an in-state gelatin manufacturing plant is a no-brainer. “North Carolina has abundant raw materials right here. We have numerous biotech and pharmaceutical companies. It just seems like a really good fit.” According to student estimates, such a plant could easily generate annual revenues exceeding $10 million. It would also create new jobs and help alleviate the state’s hog waste problem in the process.

While researching ways to manufacture high-grade gelatin for a North Carolina biomedical company, Daubert was struck with the idea that a North Carolina company had to rely on out-of-state companies for their gelatin. Along with Dr. Steve W. Peretti, associate professor of chemical engineering, he proposed the idea of researching the feasibility of building an in-state plant for a senior design project. “We wanted to give students a more realistic working experience,” Daubert said. “Get them to collaborate with people who had backgrounds and training different from themselves.”

According to Peretti, the multidisciplinary approach made for a much more interesting and detailed project. “The normal division of labor would have food scientists working on the chemistry required to get gelatin out of pig skins, while the engineers would be looking at how to process 20,000 skins per week to produce a certain amount of gelatin,” Peretti explained. “But we pushed the food science kids to be more involved in the process design, and the engineers to get down and dirty with the chemistry part.”

The team of 10 students — five from each discipline — toured a pork processing plant in Clinton and brought skins back to campus to work on gelatin extraction methods. They then used computer-modeling software to design the physical plant as well as the production process. Essentially, collagen can be extracted from pork skins by grinding and chemical treatment, followed by a filtering process. The dried end-result is a gelatin ready for sale to prospective companies. While regular-grade gelatin is used in the food industry, the biomedical industry can demand a higher grade of purity. Clean processing is the key, Daubert said. A controlled environment minimizes contamination by viruses, bacteria, pyrogens and endotoxins, all of which can seriously degrade the gelatin.

Market analysis performed by the students showed that a high-grade gelatin could potentially bring in as much as $1,000 per kilogram — so, if only 100,000 kilograms of the 75 million kilograms produced each year in North Carolina are processed, resulting in 10,000 kilograms of high-grade gelatin, annual revenues would reach $10 million. Additionally, byproducts could be sold for use in fertilizers, generating additional revenue. The analysis further estimated, conservatively according to Daubert, that a company could get a full return on their investment in less than three years. “After the initial investment, the return would be pretty amazing,” he added.

Start-up costs would be relatively modest as well, according to Daubert. “Highly sophisticated equipment is not required for gelatin extraction. You wouldn’t have to start from scratch; you could retrofit or modify existing plants to meet clean processing standards.”

Daubert and Peretti agree that further research is required to make this idea a reality, especially in respect to controlling endotoxin and other contaminant levels in the finished product. But given the strong pharmaceutical and burgeoning biotech industries in North Carolina — it’s an opportunity worth looking into.

— pishney —

/ News Index / News Archives Index /