Biological Treatment of Municipal Organic Waste using Black Soldier Fly Larvae

By S. Diener, Nandayure M. Studt Solano, Floria Roa Gutiérrez, C. Zurbrügg, Klement Tockner. 2011

531 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Valorisation of municipal organic waste through larval feeding activity of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, constitutes a potential benefit, especially for low and middle-income countries. Besides waste reduction and stabilisation, the product in form of the last larval stage, the so-called prepupae, offers a valuable additive in animal feed, opening new economic niches for small entrepreneurs in developing countries. We have therefore evaluated the feasibility of the black soldier fly larvae to digest and degrade mixed municipal organic waste in a medium-scale field experiment in Costa Rica, and explored the benefits and limitations of this technology. We achieved an average prepupae production of 252 g/m2/day (wet weight) under favourable conditions. Waste reduction ranged from 65.5 to 78.9% depending on the daily amount of waste added to the experimental unit and presence/absence of a drainage system. Three factors strongly influenced larval yield and waste reduction capacity: (1) high larval mortality due to elevated zinc concentrations in the waste material and anaerobic conditions in the experimental trays; (2) lack of fertile eggs due to zinc poisoning, and (3) limited access to food from stagnating liquid in the experimental trays. This study confirmed the great potential of this fly as a waste manager in low and middle-income countries, but also identified knowledge gaps pertaining to biological larvae requirements (egg hatching rate, moisture tolerance, …) and process design (drainage, rearing facilities, …) to be tackled in future research.

Subfields: Genetics, Insect Science, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b91df5c4399cae4805b303af8e2d0d5807a49f80

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

1. J. V. van Loon
2. Matan Shelomi
3. D. Oonincx
4. L. Gasco
5. A. van Huis
6. F. Gai
7. M. Borrello
8. A. Lombardi

In Insect Science

1. J. V. van Loon
2. D. Oonincx
3. Matan Shelomi
4. A. van Huis
5. Yu-shiang Wang
6. V. Varelas
7. L. Gasco
8. F. Gai

In Social Psychology

1. J. V. van Loon
2. Matan Shelomi
3. A. van Huis
4. D. Oonincx
5. Yu-shiang Wang
6. L. Gasco
7. V. Varelas
8. S. Diener

Citations in the corpus

• Food Wastes as a Potential new Source for Edible Insect Mass Production for Food and Feed: A review (2019, background): “Other applications of edible insects include biodegradation of polystyrene in the environment using Tenebrio molitor mealworm [33,34], use of black soldier for municipal organic waste management [35], and the use of non-mammalian models like Galleria mellonella larvae, also known as waxworm, to mode”
• Consumers’ Perspective on Circular Economy Strategy for Reducing Food Waste (2017, background): “In this field, satisfactory results about the possibility of breeding insects on organic substrates and organic waste have already been obtained [40,41].”
• Review of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) as Animal Feed and Human Food (2017, background): “Elevated zinc concentrations are a potential toxicant [64].”
• Conversion of organic wastes into fly larval biomass: bottlenecks and challenges (2015, background): “illucens breeding on organic municipal wastes, especially decomposing coffee pulp and banana wastes (Diener et al., 2011; Lardé, 1989, 1990; Morales and Wolff, 2010), also on human latrines and pig carcasses (Thompson 1991; Martins et al.”
• Partial or total replacement of soybean oil by black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens L.) fat in broiler diets: effect on growth performances, feed-choice, blood traits, carcass characteristics and meat quality (2017, background): “Furthermore, it is not a pest and it can convert byproducts and food wastes into valuable nutrients (Diener et al. 2011).”
• Standardisation of quantitative resource conversion studies with black soldier fly larvae (2020, methodology): “Different strategies have been applied, ranging from a fixed day for all treatments (e.g. Liland et al. , 2017) to harvesting at appearance of first prepupa (e.g. Oonincx et al. , 2015) to 100% prepupal formation (e.g. Diener et al. , 2011).”
• Bioconversion efficiencies, greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions during black soldier fly rearing – A mass balance approach (2020, background): “%) reported in studies that used nonmanure/non-sludge substrates (Diener et al., 2011; Ermolaev et al., 2019; Lalander et al., 2019; Oonincx et al., 2015).”
• Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens and effects on its life cycle (2015, unknown): “Myers et al. (2008) and Sheppard et al. (1994) reported a 33-58% reduction in organic matter from cow manure and 50% from chicken manure respectively and Diener et al. (2011) reached a dry matter reduction of 70% in municipal organic waste.”
• High waste-to-biomass conversion and efficient Salmonella spp. reduction using black soldier fly for waste recycling (2014, background): “In good accordance with this study, Diener et al. (2011) reported a conversion rate of 11.8% on a total solid basis in mixed organic waste.”