The process begins when dump trucks offload crab chum onto the factory’s concrete floor. Fresh crab chum smells like steamed crabs, says Condon. Even when there are ten tons at the factory, as long as the material does not sit for a few days, there are no odor problems. A small skid steer loads the material into a hopper. A series of augers delivers shells into a 25-000 gallon holding tank. A dilute solution of caustic soda with a pH of 13.5 dissolves any remaining flesh and prevents further microbial activity or shell degradation. From there, shells are pulled out of the tank with a drag chain. The pieces go up a discharger snout and into a wash process. They are then chopped into quarter-inch particle sizes and conveyed into a mixing vessel, where they is treated with hydrochloric acid to gasify the minerals. The shells go through a sieve screen for solids separation and are washed before entering another caustic solution with a slightly elevated temperature to liquify proteins and produce chitin. After another screening, the chitin is washed and put through boiling lye to remove acetate from the molecule. It is now chitosan. Acid is consumed in the reaction and the caustic solution is recovered. The chitosan is then washed, dried, ground, weighed and packaged for sale.