Tag: Organic waste

BSFL learn to live in Boden

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As the project “5F” (Framtidens Foder till FĂĄgel, Fisk och Fläsk) nears its final phase, the implementation of a container-based solution in northern Sweden has begun. In January, the SLU team spent two weeks in Boden, collaborating with Catharina Ljungcrantz and her team to start processing supermarket waste using Black Soldier Fly larvae. During this time, the team received training on how to handle the food waste, including portioning, feeding, and harvesting the treated substrate. The larvae will be utilized by Vattenfall to assess how young fish, raised in the farm, respond to insects— their natural food source—and whether this will enhance their survival rates after being released into the wild. For more information, follow the link to read about how Vattenfall vill testa framtidens fiskfoder i Boden – Boden Business Park.

Risk assessment of BSF larvae composting for circular waste management in Benin

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In this collaborative study between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Benin and Kretsloppsteknik, published in the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed, we investigated the risks of rearing black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) on biowaste streams available in Benin.


We found that most biowaste streams were contaminated with copper, chromium, cadmium, lead, and zinc, but the concentrations were below the standard limit values for animal feed. Fresh BSFL reared on these biowastes were contaminated with salmonella, which contrasts with our previous research findings, where the BSFL process typically results in a large reduction in salmonella. We believe this difference was due to the high moisture content of the substrates, which made the BSFL process less efficient. Interestingly, no salmonella was detected in larvae reared on tigernut, a substrate with more optimal moisture content, which also led to a more efficient BSFL conversion process. After blanching, salmonella levels in all larvae samples were below the detection limit.

We also found that cabbage waste contained high levels of the insecticide emamectin, but the levels in the larval biomass and the frass were below the detection limit.

This study highlights the importance of tailored management strategies for specific waste streams in circular waste management for feed production to ensure that the resulting products are safe from chemical and biological contaminants. While risks exist, they can often be managed to ensure safety, unlocking the full potential of biowaste streams and driving a sustainable circular future.

SciFest

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As usual did we participate in the science festival SciFest here in Uppsala, approximately 7000 persons, mainly pupils from grades four to nine, visited the SciFest during the three days where we showcased the practical parts of our research with the fly larvae and the urine based fertilizer production. Many of the visitors was interested and some had hard time to see the big amount of larvae in one place. The urine fertilizer was not as public magnet but still appreciated by many visitors, so we hope that the coming generation will adopt these technologies as part of a future more sustainable society.

Cecilia Lalander and Evan Were in our both prepared to meet the visitors at SciFest

Viktoria’s visit to Benin

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Viktoria just returned from Benin which she visited in October to work together with colleagues from IITA at completing the goals of workpackage I + III in our VR funded project ‘Insect farming for feed production and organic waste management in Benin‘. Together they investigated and sampled waste streams from the south and the north of Benin and worked on improving the Black Soldier Fly colony at IITA, to secure a stable and high production of Black Soldier Fly larvae for future waste treatments. The visit was ended with a fruitful final discussion, where the gained knowledge and experience was shared with the rest of the work groups, both at SLU and IITA.

IITA, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, is a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, they aim to improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security while increasing employment, and preserve natural resources.

About the project:

The project is funded by VR (VetenskapsrĂĄdet) and the objective is for Black Soldier Fly Farming to contribute to solving socio-economic and environmental issues in Benin by reducing the adverse impact of inadequate waste management, while at the same time improving agricultural productivity with locally sourced products.

We will attend the INSECTA conference in Magdeburg on 13th of September!

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Two members of the Kretsloppsteknik’s BSF group will attend the INSECTA 2023 conference in Magdeburg, Germany, which is being organized by Pilot Pflanzenöltechnologie Magdeburg e.V. (PPM), on September 13-14th. Ivã Guidini Lopes and the PhD candidate Lovisa Lindberg will be presenting two ongoing studies on the topic of organic waste treatment with BSF larvae. Ivã will hold an oral presentation regarding the inactivation of pathogens by BSF larvae in a large-scale setting, entitled “Safety assessment of black soldier fly larvae reared on food waste” and Lovisa will present her recent findings on the bioconversion of greenhouse waste with BSF larvae, also as an oral presentation entitled “Practical adjustments in fly larvae composting when treating plant-based waste”. The complete program for the conference can be accessed by clicking here.

If you’re also participating here, we would love to chat with you, perhaps over lunch or dinner during the conference! Feel free to send me an email or a message about this to iva.guidini.lopes@slu.se or lovisa.lindberg@slu.se.

SLU Kretsloppsteknikn hosts Wageningen’s ETE department

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Several members and PhD students of the ETE department (Environmental Technology) at Wageningen University & Research visited SLU earlier this month. We enjoted several interesting presentations from Miriam van Eekert, Huub Rijnaarts, Cecilia Lalander and Prithvi Simha which were followed by great discussions and a poster session where all PhD students got to showcase their research. We all also got to play a serious game which was facilitated by Jennifer McConville. It was a great day and we really look forward to future collaboration with ETE.

Hybrid PhD course on Safe nutrient recycling and management

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We at Kretsloppsteknik are currently giving a hybrid (onsite/online) course on Safe nutrient recycling and management (10 credit) within the
research school Sustainable systems for food, energy and biomaterials (SSFEB). The aim of the course is to give the student knowledge in current waste and wastewater management techniques, with focus on technologies for plant nutrient recovery and reuse. Today, 75% of all biodegradable solid waste is landfilled or dumped and 90% of all wastewater generated is either not treated or only partially treated. In cases when the waste is treated, treatments are not focused on recycling, but rather removal, of plant nutrients, as they can otherwise risk to pollute the environment. If the plant nutrients in the waste and wastewater were collected they could replace 25-50% of the virgin resources used for production of chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. Looking at waste and wastewater as resources is a paradigm shift, and for this shift to happen new technologies and management systems are required. When closing the loop of nutrients there is a risk of recycling unwanted substances as well, e.g. heavy metals and pathogens. Upon completion of the course the student should know the flow of waste and wastewater in society, possible treatment methods for closing the loop of nutrients and the risks associated with closed loop systems, as well as methods for mitigating circulation of unwanted substances.

 

Picture from our last seminar, with two participants being onsite and four participants joining online from India, China and Rwanda.

Formas funding for in depth investigation of hygiene parameters in BSFL composting

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We are very happy to announce that Formas has decided to fund our project Circular economy in feed production by fly larvae composting – risks of accumulation of persistent disease agents in the reuse chain. In this project we will dive back into the hygiene of the black soldier fly larvae composting process, investigating the fate persistent disease agents we have so far not been able to able to study, e.g. scrapie prions and spore-forming bacteria.

We will investigate what happens to disease agents in the BSFL composting process and verify whether they end up in the larvae, the frass or are destroyed/inactivated. We will also try to establish if the known inactivation of selected disease agents (e.g. Salmonella spp.) happens in the passage through the larvae or is due to excretion of antimicrobial peptides. Finally, we will wrap up all collected knowledge in a quantitative risk assessment, in which we focus in particular at the risk of prions. The lack of knowledge to what happens to prions in this process we believe is one major reason that hinders the use of post-consumer food waste as feed substrate to insects.

To increase our joy even more, we were also granted another Formas project, in collaboration with Ecoloop, RagnSells, Tebrito, Johannas stadsodlingar. The aim of the project is to link the lab scale knowledge of the hygiene in insect processing to larger scale settings. We will develop quality control measures and implemented them at commercial facilities in proof-of-concept studies. In addition, the use of a block-chain based digital traceability system in a circular food production chain in which food waste is used as insect substrate will be investigated and a conceptual model designed. Discussions with authorities and certification organs will be maintained throughout the project. Hopefully these two projects can be part of a process in which the regulation on substrates for insects to include real waste substrates and not only food industry waste streams that are currently allowed. Many insect researchers are in agreement: for insects to have a real and sustainable impact on our food systems, they have to be reared on real waste substrates (see excellent comment on the Principles for the responsible use of farmed insects as livestock feed in nature food by Parodi et al (2022)).