Production of composite membrane from waste Kappa-Carrageenan and Tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) fishbone

Kappa-Carrageenan has been widely used as a gelling agent and stabilizer in the food industry. This research is an application of Kappa Carrageenan as polymer membrane with the combination of Hydroxyl Apatite obtained from the fishbone. Different weight percentages of K-Carrageenan and Fishbone were mixed to make a filtering media with the use of Glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent. Before the crosslinking, K carrageenan were pretreated with monochloroacetic acid, ethanol and sodium hydroxide to become an alkali-based solution that will be readily mixed with the hydroxyl apatite. Fishbone were converted to hydroxyl apatite through subjection in a high temperature dryer. Polymer membrane were characterized by evaluating its mechanical and physical properties such as elastic resistance, water permeability and mean pore size diameter with the use of force gauge, filtration due to gravity and scanned electron microscopy respectively. Based from the evaluation, composite with 60% KCarrageenan-40% Fishbone displayed the most feasible characteristic of a filtering media such as its mechanical strength and water permeability. Composite with 80% KCarrageenan-20% Fishbone has the smallest pore size in which a good characteristic also of a filtering media.