commercial applications of BSFL as fishmeal replacement

[biobehaviorist]

Hi all, its great to see how many people are getting into BSFL! I have started my own bin recently and have been doing a lot of market research on commercial applications for this technology. Green waste technologies and Organic value recovery are two companies that are going large scale and I found myself asking the question of what are they going to do with all of these grubs? what is the market for this? it turns out that a company called Neptune industries partnered with Mississippi state university and developed an insect based protein replacement for fishmeal. This protein was made from 4 different species, BSFL was definitely one of them, but they didn't disclose the names. pilot studies with this protein showed that pellets made from this protein can substitute up to 100% of the fishmeal in a commercial extruded pellet without hurting feed conversion ratios and growth rates! Neptune got a letter of intent from Ziegler Bros. to produce fish pellets with this protein dubbed "ento protein" but in 2009 Neptune went bankrupt. I was wondering if anybody has picked up the ball since '09. it seems like they were on to something with huge implications for aquaculture industry and this seems like a great way to market the larvae but I haven't found anything recently saying that there is a large demand for BSFL. Does anybody know of any recent advancements for sustainable fishmeal or marketability for large quantities of BSFL?

[urbanfarmer]

I have some very large books on the topic, but I have not heard about what is actually going on in the industry.

[bsfman]

Does anybody know of any recent advancements for sustainable fishmeal or marketability for large quantities of BSFL?

I've been raising BSF on a commercial scale for several years now. I've recently begun helping new start up company in Plainfield, NJ called Green Waste Technologies. The CEO, Olive Lynch, has plans to digest tons of municipal waste using BSF, with oil and meal as downstream uses of the larvae.
http://grnwt.com/managementteam.html

Another company I've worked with, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, raises livestock organically and has attempted to utilize BSF to digest cattle viscera and employ it as a feed for their organic poultry operation. They've had mixed results so far, but are still working on it.
http://whiteoakpastures.com/

[bsfman]

Oops! I see Green Waste Technologies was one of the companies you mentioned. I was too quick on the reply button.

[biobehaviorist]

Oops! I see Green Waste Technologies was one of the companies you mentioned. I was too quick on the reply button.

I have been reading up on GWT for a short while now...and i wonder what sort of container design would be most effective for processing a few tons of waste... a large diameter biopod? or perhaps an extended trough?

[keith_r]

pig farmers in minnesota i think are using bsfl to consume pig waste, they use a large "bed" that tilts