Black Soldier Flies Power the World Through BioDiesel- Transforming Waste to Energy

A paper came out last night that covers a topic of major interest to the BSF community and others interested in green technology. While oil prices may not be $100/barrel as in the past, I believe this topic is still of major interest and should be investigated more thoroughly. A simple Google search with the term "bioenergy" demonstrates the interest in this topic with countless articles and news stories being written on the topic.

Based on what I understand from past research, BSF has tremendous potential for use as a means to produce bioenergy along with protein, while protecting the environment and conserving food.

The article, which just came out in the journal, Renewable Energy, is:

Feng, W., L. Qian, W. Wang, T. Wang, Z. Deng, F. Yang, J. Xiong, and C. Wang. Exploring the potential of lipids from black soldier fly: New paradigm for biodiesel production (II)—Extraction kinetics and thermodynamic. Renewable Energy.

Basic Overview: We all recognize BSF can be mass produced for protein. And, resulting BSF larvae are also high in fat (30% based on some accounts). Because of their high fat content, there have been efforts to harvest these fats and produce bio-energy.

Findings: What did I find? I found this paper to be extremely challenging for me to follow- but I think that is more to do with my background being ecology and behavior. But, what did determine is the lipids/fat could be extracted with a solvent and the level (efficiency) of extraction was temperature dependent. Simply stated, there was a temperature that resulted in the greatest level of fat extraction from the BSF meal when using a liquid solvent (chloroform was better for extracting than petroleum or hexane). Elevating the temperature by 10C (above a minimal threshold, I believe) increased the extraction ratio by one.

This was a  tough read, as I mentioned earlier, but something to keep in mind... simply from the perspective of, 1) fats from BSF could be used for bio-energy production, and 2) knowing there are competent researchers out there doing this type of work. I know I am grateful for their efforts! :) 

With that in mind, the authors also published this paper in the same journal if you are interested:

Wang, C., L. Qian, W. Wang, T. Wang, Z. Deng, F. Yang, J. Xiong, and W. Feng. 2017. Exploring the potential of lipids from black soldier fly: New paradigm for biodiesel production (I). Renewable Energy 111: 749-756.

Author

Jeff Tomberlin, PhD, Not a Bioenergy Person (but I do appreciate those that do such work)
Twitter: @FliesFacility
Director, EVO Conversion Systems