Food waste management using the hermetia illucens insect

Abstract

In modern agricultural biogas plants, the biowastes are being increasingly used for the biogas production. The food waste is also widely used in larvae breeding. This is an important because, based on biowaste, its proper management and green energy production is possible. This study aims to determine the biogas and methane efficiency of the Hermetia illucens larvae that were fed using the food waste. In the research on the biogas and methane efficiency, the Hermetia illucens larvae were used. The total solids (TS) of the substrate equals 30.35%, and the volatile solids (VS) content was 92.31% of TS. The larvae were fed only with the food waste of plant origin. The obtained substrates were homogeneous. The experiment was carried out under mesophilic anaerobic digestion conditions-39°C in the 21-chamber biofermentor set in the Institute of Biosystems Engineering in Poznan University of Life Sciences. The anaerobic digestion process in the batch reactor ran correctly. Fermentation inhibition was not detected. The biogas efficiency for larvae amounted to 198.75 m3Mg-1 fresh mass (FM). On the other hand, the methane efficiency, amounted to 127.73 m3Mg-1, at the methane concentration of 64.27%. On the basis of the research, it was found that the larvae feeding on food waste can be used directly as anaerobic digestion in the bioconversion process.