"know-how" to operate the equipment economically and safely. There are 

 some disadvantages, of course, to this t :/pe of processing in Alaska but 

 these might be outweighed by the advantages of a specialized product of 

 superior quality. Equipment adequate to process large amounts of nrterial 

 by solvent extraction methods would present a definite engineering problem 

 under the conditions outlined for Alaskan operations. Use of inflammable 

 solvents would raise a serious objection to the increased fire hazard. 

 Solvents would need to be transported to Alaska. Processing the material, 

 or at least selected portions of it^ would necessitate costly shicmait of the 

 preserved material in a raw or wet state over a considerable distance. 

 However, it is believed that solvent extraction of salmon cannery waste 

 would produce oils and fats of a much higher market value and, in addition, 

 make possible, because of the less severe heat treatment durin^^ the 

 drying process, the recovery of a more highly marketable protein material 

 and possibly the subsequent recovery of lecithin and perhaps cholesterol. 

 Pilot plant operations would need to be carefully studied before accurate 

 predictions concerning the economic feasibility of this type of processing 

 could be made. The isolation of cholesterol from fish oils might be ex- 

 pected to present some difficulties not encountered with the use of some 

 other animal sources because the unsaponifiable matter from marine oils 

 often contains substances other than cholesterol which would necessitate 

 additional purification. Eoctraction of lecithin from salmon eggs would 

 not be expected to present any unusual difficulties and it is believed 

 that the present commercially used methods would be satisfactory. 



Possibility of Preparing Special Fat and Lipid Materials from Salmon 



Cannery Waste 



Exploitation of the fats and lipids present in salmon cannery waste 

 for the separation of special products appears to have good economic 

 possibilities. Utilizing salmon oils, especially the egg oilifor their 

 property of having a large percentage of long chain highly unsaturated 

 fatty acids might be accomplished by removing them from the saturated 

 triglyceriaes by distillation. The sepiarated unsaturated portion, with 

 possibly slight modification, should possess excellent drying properties 

 which would make it valuable for incorporation into lacquers and quick- 

 drying enamels, -iince the salmon oils as well as other fish oils are 

 unique in their property of containing long chain highly unsaturated fatty 

 acids, additional research into special application of these acids might 

 uncover a specialized market where commercial development of salmon cannery 

 waste was indicated in order to supply these materials. Lecithin, which 

 is reported to be present in considerable amount in salmon egg oil, is 

 widely used in many industries. Lecithin is bought and sold in carload 

 lots and at present has a comparatively high market value. Separation of 

 commercial lecithin frcm salmon egg fat seems to be possible. Recovery 

 of cholesterol from salmon egg and other oils on an economical basis 

 depends on whether or not the actual cholesterol content is as high as seme 

 of the reports in the literature indicate, and whether or not the present 

 high market prices continue in the light of recently reported meUiods 

 for the commercial extraction of cholesterol from "wool fat". It is be- 

 lieved, that although there is at present a strong market demand for 



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