West St. Mary Port may get crustacean shell processor

Port of West St. Mary officials are nearing an agreement with a potential tenant at the Louisa site.
Kytosan USA LLC, will enter in to a memorandum of understanding with the port to locate a facility, pending and conditioned on a USDA-approved guaranteed loan. The port would construct a 10,000 square foot facility which Kytosan would lease.
The company utilizes the shell waste of crustaceans such as crab, shrimp and crawfish to create chitosan, a product with many applications such as in polymers, agriculture, cosmetics and medicine.
It is biodegradable, according to Dr. Joseph F. Bristow, PhD., Chief Technology Officer. Kytosan’s parent company is AgraTech International, Inc.
Bristow designed the process to convert shellfish to chitosan. “We’re studying a package to increase the yield of certain leafy vegetal crops and a plant that is healthier, sturdier and more resistant to drought and insects,” he said. “It doesn’t require much capital investment from the farmer.”
The compound is also anti-fungal, a leading agricultural problem. The company has received interest in other industries and commercial applications.
Location at the port site does not need to have direct water access, but wastewater discharge is primarily salt water. “So being next to a saltwater estuary like the Intracoastal Waterway is perfect and we have a permit from DEQ,” Bristow said.
Bristow said seafood processors both at the port site and beyond are “very enthusiastic because of the liability they have in transporting the shell” for disposal. Kytosan will hire a third-party transport company to collect the shell to the facility, and said seafood processors would save expenses of their current disposal system.
Shell will not be stored at the port; the facility will process it as soon as it arrives, Bristow said. It will be transported in refrigerated trucks and will remain in those conditions even if there is a delay in processing.
He expects to begin with processing about 5,000 tons per year.
The commission agreed to authorize Executive Director David Allain to enter into the memorandum of understanding with Kytosan.