In our study just published in Journal of Cleaner Production we were interested in finding out what how the larval feedstock affect the efficiency of the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) composting process in terms of biomass conversion ratio, larval development and larval survival. We compared the process efficiency of nine different feedstocks and two control substrates and compared it to substrate properties, such as protein content and C/N ratio.
We found that the substrate properties that had the largest impact on biomass conversion ratio and larval development was the daily larval feeding rate of organic material and proteins, while only the daily feeding rate of organic material impacted the final prepupal size. The feedstock found to be most promising for black soldier fly treatment were abattoir waste, a mixture of abattoir waste and fruit & vegetable waste, food waste and human faeces. The feedstock that did not show great promise (low biomass conversion ratio, long larval development time) were the sewage sludges and fruits & vegetable waste.
If you are interested to find out more, check the publication out, it’s open access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.017
Contact: Cecilia Lalander