Descrizione del progetto
Dai rifiuti degli insetti alle bioplastiche ecologiche
Nel settore in rapida espansione della produzione di insetti per l’alimentazione umana e animale, la mosca soldato nera (BSF) si distingue per la sua abilità nel riciclaggio delle risorse biologiche e per l’elevato contenuto nutrizionale. Tuttavia, il settore ha ampiamente trascurato il vasto potenziale della chitina, un polimero abbondantemente presente nella BSF. Il progetto ChitinBioPlastic, finanziato dalle azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, affronta questa mancanza. L’obiettivo è quello di convertire i rifiuti dell’industria della BSF, comprese le mosche morte e le esuvie delle pupe, in preziosa chitina e bioplastiche. Con l’inquinamento da plastica convenzionale che sta raggiungendo livelli critici, questa impresa innovativa cerca di sviluppare tecniche verdi per l’estrazione della chitina, garantendo una produzione di bioplastiche ecologica. Con le sue pratiche sostenibili, ChitinBioPlastic traccia un percorso innovativo nella produzione di insetti, mitigando l’inquinamento da plastica e promuovendo un futuro più verde.
Obiettivo
Commercial insect production for food and feed is a fast-growing industry. Among different insect species, Black Soldier Flies (BSF) show promising potential due to their efficient bioresource recycling capability and high nutritional values for animal feed applications. In addition, they are an important source of chitin, the second most abundant polymer after cellulose in the world, with diverse industrial applications. The current insect production sector has primarily overlooked the application of chitin, mainly focusing on products associated with nutritional values. However, in the future commercial insect sector will generate a lot of wastes, including dead fly and pupae exuviae. This project aims to provide industrial value to the dead fly and pupae exuviae of BSF industry into chitin and bioplastics, developing and exploiting novel, efficient, and environment-friendly approaches. This is because, from 1950-2015, the world has already generated 6.3 billion MT of plastic, and an estimated 12 billion MT of plastic is predicted to reach landfills by 2050. These plastics slowly disintegrate to generate Micro-Plastics harming life underwater and above land. Thus, we must develop bio-based plastics to replace the heavy use of harmful plastics. This project will extract the chitin from insect by-products and develop it into bioplastics. The current chitin extraction involves the usage of harsh chemicals leading to severe environmental pollution. Therefore, green techniques are needed to extract chitin from these insects. This study will refine and employ cutting edge techniques to extract chitin from BSF. The chitin produced will be suitable for developing bioplastics since the biomass used to make bioplastic will be biodegradable and is not food product. This would be the first study in the insect production sector to develop and apply a green pathway for chitin production and processing to a biodegradable bioplastic.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processes
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbioplastics
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandryanimal feed
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinatore
8026 Bodo
Norvegia