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The Green Economy
salt load. A British Council Africa Knowledge Transfer
Partnership sponsored project is seeking to improve
the poor groundwater quality on the arid West Coast,
at Garies in the Kamiesberg municipality (Northern
Province). If successful, this will have a significant impact
on the local community, whose development is severely
Dr Anwar Jardine (centre) and the chitosan research group in the
Department of Chemistry.
Local chitosan manufacturing pilot process
Milled crayfish shells (above right) and
chitosan (above)
hampered by the scarcity of local potable water, with
water needing to be trucked in at certain times. The
first ‘laboratory phase’ of the project is complete
and the pilot in Garies will strive to translate the
laboratory process into the field, ultimately improving
the municipality’s “green” and “blue drop” water
quality and management rating.
Another successful application has seen the use
of this modified chitosan as a solid support for the
chromatographic separation of fish oil. The fish oil
is a by-product of the pelagic fishing and has a low
commercial value owing to competing vegetable oils.
This silver-based “argentation chromatography” allows
saturated fatty acids to be separated from unsaturated
fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids have great nutritional
value (e.g. omega-3 and -6 fatty acids). Saturated fatty
acids, on the other hand, have cosmetic value or serve
better as feedstock for biodiesel.