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Black Soldier Fly larvae – based bioconversion at Länsiharju school in Lahti was terminated according to the plan.

The bioconversion by larvae was in operation for 14 days. Larvae ate with good appetite mixed school kitchen waste food that was served to larvae once a day.

The bioconversion was managed by the teacher of Länsiharju school and 10-years old children of the class. The forthcoming bioscientists were courage and curious, and they handled and monitored larvae daily basis according to detailed guidance and data collection matrix (see pics below).

The bioconversion produced value tor four different end-user groups. The first end-user group was the teacher’s home chicken farm. As you can see on the video the chickens really enjoyed to eat fat larvae which are full of protein and oil. Healthy diet indeed – for chickens.

https://youtu.be/QummdbuzIvc

Based on Google Scholar database the number of published papers that include the term “Black Soldier Fly larvae” has increased since 2015. A new record will be made by the end of 2020, as 449 papers are already published in the first 8 months (Figure 1). 

What is Black Soldier Fly larvae and what is it capable of?

Hermetia illucens i.e. the black soldier fly, is a common and globally widespread fly.The adults of Hermetia illucens measure approximitely 16 millimetres long.Back Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae are used to compost waste or convert the waste into animal feed. It’s a bio-converter. Fly larvae are among the most efficient animals at converting feed into biomass.  One larvae is able to eat about 130 mg food waste daily. Unfortunately the life of greedy larvae is short, perhaps 2 weeks hence the BSF farming requires constant upkeep. The other reason to farm BSF larvae is that the fat larvae is an excellent source of protein both for humans and animals. 

Black Soldier Fly larvae and RDI actions

There is no lack of wicked problems:  the need for economic opportunity, growth and development in rural areas;  the problem of disposing of millions of tons of food waste generated in both rural and urban settings each year;  a risk for hunger pandemic, a need for high-quality protein products both for food and feed.

The problems are so big that there is no chance to leave any stone unturned.  Researchers world wide have since  1999 researched, tested and experimented how to farm BSFs and larvae of BSFs. The researchers have tested BSF larvae’s ability and limitations to be an efficient bio-converter. They have studied the business models of bio-conversion and also BSFs’ usage as a protein source. Technical upscaling from laboratory scale to industry scale business has been simulated and prepared.

The investments in the last decade on research, development and innovations actions have opened avenues to eager entrepreneurs, particularly in rural settings, to establish BSF larvae based production and business that relies on evidence and research results.  In addition to scientific papers the diverse research actions have hopefully also advanced networking, co-operation, knowledge transfer and cross-sectorial understanding of Insect Economy. 

Black Soldier Fly larvae and the wider concept of Insect Economy may provide a case to analyse policy makers’ influence on past RDI actions:

• How weak signals have been noted in? 
• How RDI funding has been addressed to? 
• How entrepreneurs have been supported?  
• How food/feed legislation and regulation has adapted into the domain?
• How policy makers and governance have participated in networking, ecosystem building and cooperation? 

From science to practice and viable business 

There is still a lot of work to do to direct BSF larvae farming and Insect Economy into serious new business to benefit rural areas and to create new jobs.  The main limitation to make business of BSF seems to be the markets.  The protein products for food or feed still need customer acceptance and routes to markets. In addition, the larvae ability to process waste e.g. mixed food waste or manure is unexploited in the industrial scale. The waste handling processes (e.g. biomass collecting), the business models and production technology are not ready for that.  

In order to enhance further developments in Insect Economy, the policy decisions that direct practise-oriented RDI actions, are based on evidence and are timely, give a push to new rural entrepreneurship (Figure 3).   

A distinguished group of scientists and business innovators will gather together in Lahti on 24.9.2020 to discuss and share findings and experiences about Insect Economy in theory and in practice. The main topics for our discussion are:

Insect and larvae based protein production

Larvae propelled bioconversion

Cross-sector interconnection in the bio-based economy

Entrepreneurship in rural areas

Children point of view and their relationship to nature

Considering the fact that our project would be conducted indoors and in limited space, we did not have that many options for storage systems. Luckily for us, IKEA happened to sell usable storage solutions, what we could use for our project.

For our project, we had to acquire three different types of storage boxes, one for larvae, compost and bio waste. For food waste, we bought three boxes, so we could split different type of food waste for each box. This would allow us to feed larvae with different types of food and see how it affects them. Because the project would be conducted indoors, we also realized that we would have to have sealed boxes, so there wouldn’t be any problems with smell.

The Blue Wings Composting core research team is formed of Länsiharju school 10 years old children and their teacher. The work of the research team is supported and monitored by national and international Insect Economy researchers.

According to the conducted research to feed mixed biowaste to black soldier fly larvae (Blue Wings) is the most promising approach. The performance of the process is measured by survival rate, larval weight, waste reduction and bioconversion rate.

The purpose of the Länsiharju’s research team is to explore what are the results when black soldier fly larvae live at the school room and they are fed with school kitchen food waste.

The research team explores also how to recycle larvae that are loaded with protein and what to do with the food waste that has been prosessed by larvae.