The seven-member Bay de Verde municipal council voted 4-3 to grant approval-in-principle to the project at a March 3 council meeting, with Mayor Gerard Murphy casting the deciding vote in favour of the application.

Also supporting the application were deputy mayor Gordon Coish and councillors Gerard Broderick and Carrie Potter.

Mayor Murphy chaired the meeting, and said there were questions about air emissions, the discharge of effluent into the marine ecosystem, and the transport and use of chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and potassium hydroxide, two important chemicals in the chitin production process.

There were also concerns expressed about some ongoing issues, including odour problems and the ongoing dumping of shell waste at a local site.

Murphy was initially apprehensive about the project, but after receiving more information, has warmed up to the idea.

“I greet this application with cautious optimism,” he said. “If the company is willing to come in and make a multi-million-dollar investment into a technology that is new in the province … that investment, given the volatility of the fishing industry, can only lead to an extended longevity of the facility in the community.”

“That was one of the biggest considerations that I had to think about,” he added.

But the roughly $5 million project is still far from receiving the green light, with environmental approvals still to come, and some community leaders still not convinced the project is in the best interest of the town.

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The group said they launched the project as LM-contamination of ready-to-eat foods, such as cold-smoked salmon, is a common cause of foodbourne illness outbreaks and usually occurs in the post-processing phase. In 2009 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 15 per cent of all smoked fish is tainted with LM.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the performance of chitosan-based edible coatings and films incorporating three generally recognized as safe (GRAS) antimicrobials; sodium lactate (SL), sodium diacetate (SD), and potassium sorbate (PS), against L. monocytogenes on cold-smoked salmon.

Salmon samples were surface-inoculated with a 5-strain cocktail of LM to a final concentration of 4.4 log CFU/cm2 and then either coated with chitosan solutions or wrapped with chitosan films with or without the antimicrobials. The samples were then vacuum packaged and stored at 4°C for 30 days.

The scientists found that chitosan coatings, with or without the antimicrobials, consistently showed higher efficacy against LM than chitosan films with the same compositions.

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A scientific wear test comparing TENCEL C with cotton revealed that TENCEL C achieves better results. The blind study was carried out with 32 test participants with healthy skin wearing a stocking of TENCEL C on one leg and a cotton stocking on the other leg for two weeks. A dermatologist evaluated the skin of the test participants. In 41% of the test subjects, the leg that wore TENCEL C looked better with reduced dehydration, fewer wrinkles and less cornification and micro-fractures.

In general the level of moisture of the skin drops less with TENCEL C. TENCEL C acts like a moisture reservoir and prevents the loss of moisture of the skin. As a result the skin barrier is intact and offers protection from environmental influences. Another study tested cell renewal. Once again it was shown that with TENCEL C, skin cells are renewed more quickly when a wound is healing.

After many years of research work, Lenzing has succeeded in soaking a fiber with the biopolymer Chitosan and in transferring this to large-scaleproduction. Chitosan is difficult to control at production level. It is water-soluble and after several processing steps, it can dissipate from the fiber.

The research scientists at Lenzing developed a special technology to prevent this. Because of Lenzing’s expertise and innovative manufacturing techniques, TENCEL C can easily take up to 50 wash cycles in a commercially available washing machine without losing its cosmetic properties.

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This new material made of chitosan looks like a very thin white film and reminds one of the texture of silk. It has been created in the department of polymers of Karpov Research and Development Institute of Physics and Chemistry. Researchers from this department have been investigating chitosan properties for several years and now are trying to enhance its properties. One of the experiments created a new seamless material from this well-known natural polymer.  The unwoven piece was made by means of electroformation, a technique for producing various polymer materials – at a special facility for this purpose at the Institute. Tens of experiments aimed at finding optimum conditions resulted in a material with desired properties generated from a chitosan solution. A piece of this new material was showcased  recently in Tuapse during the symposium “Modern Chemical Physics”.

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Researchers at Swinburne University have been investigating the use of bioplastics – ingredients from renewable sources – and the properties of biopolymers that determine their ‘compostability’.

These projects have brought together PhD students, Suchetana Chattopadhyay and Cameron Way, who are examining the properties of plastics biopolymers as part of their PhD studies, under the supervision of Associate Professor Enzo Palombo.

Chattopadhyay is using a respirometer – a composting machine – to test novel, chitin-based polymers.

Chitin is the world’s second most abundant organic compound. It is mostly derived from shellfish waste, but also includes the exoskeletons of crustaceans, insects and spiders.

In collaboration with an industry partner, Chattopadhyay has provided the first direct evidence of true biodegradability in novel, chitin-based polymers.

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