Correlating black soldier fly larvae growths with soluble nutrients derived from thermally pre-treated waste activated sludge

Chin Seng Liew; Guo Ren Mong; Eman A Abdelfattah; Ratchaprapa Raksasat; Hemamalini Rawindran; Worapon Kiatkittipong; Mardawani Mohamad; Anita Ramli; Normawati M Yunus; Man Kee Lam; Wen Da Oh; Jun Wei Lim

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.112923

Correlating black soldier fly larvae growths with soluble nutrients derived from thermally pre-treated waste activated sludge

Environ Res. 2022 Jul:210:112923. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.112923. Epub 2022 Feb 10.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
² School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, 43900, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand. Electronic address: kiatkittipong_w@su.ac.th.
⁵ Faculty of Bioengineering and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, 17600, Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia.
⁶ Centre of Research in Ionic Liquids (CORIL), Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering, HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
⁸ School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
⁹ Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. Electronic address: junwei.lim@utp.edu.my.

PMID: 35150716
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.112923

Abstract

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) have been deployed to valorize various organic wastes. Nonetheless, its growth rate whilst being offered with waste activated sludge (WAS) is not promising, likely by virtue of the presence of extracellular polymeric substances' structure in WAS. In this work, the WAS were first thermally pre-treated under different treatment temperatures and durations before being administered as the feeding substrates for BSFL. The results showed the thermal pre-treatment could improve WAS palatability and subsequently, enhance the growth of BSFL especially after the pre-treatments at 75 °C and above. The highest larva weight gained was recorded at 2.16 mg/larva for the WAS sample being pre-treated at 90 °C and 16 h. Furthermore, the samples pre-treated above 75 °C also achieved higher degradation rates, indicating that the 75 °C was a threshold temperature to effectively hydrolyze the WAS. The changes of WAS characteristics, namely, (i) soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), (ii) soluble carbohydrate, (iii) soluble protein, (iv) humic substances and (v) total soluble protein and humic substances, after the thermal pre-treatments were also studied in correlating with the BSFL growth. Accordingly, a model was successfully developed with the highest R² value attained at 0.95, evidencing the SCOD was the most suitable WAS characteristic to accurately predict the BSFL growth behavior.

Keywords: BSFL growth; Black soldier fly larvae; Modeling; Soluble chemical oxygen demand; Thermal pre-treatment; Waste activated sludge.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Diptera*
Humic Substances
Larva
Nutrients
Sewage*

Substances

Humic Substances
Sewage