Growth performance, chemical composition and valorisation of residues of yellow mealworm fed with pretreated lignocellulosic biomasses.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Eisele
• Subject Area: Biological Process Engineering ; Animal Physiology and Biochemistry
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466169172

The world population will continue to grow over the next three decades, reaching more than 10 billion people. Therefore, food sources other than traditional food crops and livestock are needed to feed the world's population. Insects could be an affordable and nutritious alternative to traditional food resources. Food made from insect protein instead of a typical animal can thelp to solve or alleviate many environmental problems. It is therefore proposed to investigate the generally available lignocellulosic biomass such as wheat straw and the cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) as potential new sources of feed for insects. For this purpose, the lignocellulose-containing biomass should be made enzymatically accessible with the organosolv process or by steam explosion and then broken down into metabolizable sugars by enzymatic hydrolysis. The pretreatment of the lignocellulose-containing biomass should be carried out in such a way that as few toxic substances as possible, e.g. furfural or aliphatic acids are formed. The (pre) treatment enables the use of lignocellulose residues and special lignocellulose-containing plants for feeding insects without the use of typical feedstuffs and food plants. The (hemi-) cellulases used for the enzymatic digestion of the lignocellulose-containing biomass are also obtained by fermentation on 2G raw materials. The insects obtained are tested for their chemical composition, e.g. the amino acid composition or the fatty acid composition. Furthermore, the accumulation of toxic substances in the insects, which can arise when the biomass is pre-treated, is to be investigated. In addition, the study examines the possibility of an enzymatic pretreatment for the residues of insect production in order to obtain a biogas substrate for increased biogas production from insect rearing. For this purpose, the enzymatic pretreatment of the chitin, resulting from the insect rearing, is conducted.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Co-Investigator: Dr.-Ing. Andreas Wilke
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Michal Krzyzaniak