Proof of principle fly larvae biorefinery for biopolymer plastic production

BioLaMer aims to demonstrate a novel proof of principle fly larvae biorefinery by establishing food eating black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) as a high impact feedstock for cost-effective production of two biopolymers, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and chitosan, and then added-value products from the produced biopolymers. The advantages of the larvae route are that: i) the feedstock is renewable and inexpensive; ii) it provides less complexity as the larvae has almost invariable chemical composition; iii) can be used to mitigate the FW problem; iv) can reduce crop based feedstocks; v) doesn’t disturb the biodiversity; vi) can avoid/reduce pre-treatment costs that are associated with other waste-streams to produce the platform chemicals for biopolymer production; and many more.