Research Progress on Reuse of Biomass Resource of Oyster Shells

Oysters are saltwater bivalves with high nutritional and medicinal value that are cultivated widely around the world. Oyster shell is a unique natural biomaterial composed of 95% calcium carbonate and 5% organic polymer material. Its unique multi-scale and multi-level “brick-mud”microstructure is similar to human hard tissues, which endows its good mechanical stability, biocompatibility, degradability, and excellent adsorption properties. Herein, this paper systematically introduces and discusses the physicochemical and highly ordered hierarchical natural unique calcium carbonate micro nano structure of oyster shell, followed by a summary of its applications in agriculture, industry and biology. Specially, we elaborate the applications of oyster shells in sewage processing, soil improvement, natural antibacterial agents (food industry and biomedicine), bone tissue engineering, medical uses, biological filling, catalysts and dispersive carriers in diesel industry, concrete fillers in construction industry, and functional coating additives,and introduce the advances in using the bioconversion technology to convert oyster shells into bioenergy, new biomass materials and other applications. In addition, this review also discusses the potential applications of oyster shells in industry, agriculture and medicine in the near future.