*Article* **Seafood Processing Chitin Waste for Electricity Generation in a Microbial Fuel Cell Using Halotolerant Catalyst** *Oceanisphaera arctica* **YHY1**

**Ranjit Gurav 1, Shashi Kant Bhatia 1, Tae-Rim Choi 1, Hyun-Joong Kim 1, Hong-Ju Lee 1, Jang-Yeon Cho 1, Sion Ham 1, Min-Ju Suh 1, Sang-Hyun Kim 1, Sun-Ki Kim 2, Dong-Won Yoo 3 and Yung-Hun Yang 1,\***


**Abstract:** In this study, a newly isolated halotolerant strain *Oceanisphaera arctica* YHY1, capable of hydrolyzing seafood processing waste chitin biomass, is reported. Microbial fuel cells fed with 1% chitin and 40 g L−<sup>1</sup> as the optimum salt concentration demonstrated stable electricity generation until 216 h (0.228 mA/cm2). N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) was the main by-product in the chitin degradation, reaching a maximum concentration of 192.01 mg g<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup> chitin at 120 h, whereas lactate, acetate, propionate, and butyrate were the major metabolites detected in the chitin degradation. *O. arctica* YHY1 utilized the produced GlcNAc, lactate, acetate, and propionate as the electron donors to generate the electric current. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) investigation revealed the participation of outer membrane-bound cytochromes, with extracellular redox mediators partly involved in the electron transfer mechanism. Furthermore, the changes in structural and functional groups in chitin after degradation were analyzed using FTIR and XRD. Therefore, the ability of *O. arctica* YHY1 to utilize waste chitin biomass under high salinities can be explored to treat seafood processing brine or high salt wastewater containing chitin with concurrent electricity generation.

**Keywords:** chitin; electricity generation; halotolerant; microbial fuel cell; seafood processing
