Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Life Cycle Assessment on the Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens L.)

Abstract

The black soldier fly (BSF) is recognised as a valuable insect for mitigating feed and organic waste management challenges. Thus, concerted efforts are being directed toward the promotion of the BSF. Despite the numerous advantages of BSF larvae, there are several critical environmental aspects, particularly its global warming potential, that need to be considered before large-scale adoption due to the complexity of the insect’s value chain. The direct assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions from BSF larvae biotreatment is crucial for conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the insect products’ environmental performance. This article reviews the emissions of GHG from BSF larvae bioconversion activities based on different gas sensing techniques while highlighting the factors that influence these emissions. Generally, low gas emissions were reported. However, the influence of various factors influencing emissions remains unclear, especially for nitrous oxide. We also analysed LCA studies on BSFL products while emphasising the uncertainties and variabilities among the studies. The wide variation of impact scores reported in the studies suggests that standardised guidelines should be developed to streamline methodical approaches for impact assessments pertaining to system boundaries, functional units, allocation, and system expansion assumptions. We identified several aspects for future improvements to harmonise studies in order to enhance the comparative assessment of the BSFL products.

Waste reintroduced in the kitchen: life cycles inventories of representative waste-to-nutrition pathways

“…Numerous reviews already synthesize the integration of insects farming within circular food systems, also evidenced by the increasing body of LCAs literature on the subject . Yet, reviewed studies reach a wide panel of conclusions regarding the environmental impacts of insects farming, principally because these build on different goal, scope, modeling assumptions and data transparency (Boakye-Yiadom et al, 2022;Siegrist et al, 2023). Moreover, it is also clear that most efforts to assess the environmental impacts of insect farming have been concentrated on few species, principally Hermetia Illucens ies (also called black solider ies; BSF; around 20 LCA studies identi ed) and Tenebrio Molitor mealworms (ca.…”

Future opportunities for products derived from black soldier fly (BSF) treatment as animal feed and fertilizer - A systematic review

“…Conducting an LCA for BSFL products requires data on direct GHG emissions from the bioconversion phase. Most LCA studies on BSFL struggle to consider these emissions as part of their inventory modelling, mainly due to the unavailability of reliable background data (Boakye-Yiadom et al, 2022). Some studies did not include it under the assumption that it was negligible (Salomone et al, 2017).…”

Flight toward Sustainability in Poultry Nutrition with Black Soldier Fly Larvae

“…Furthermore, BSFL significantly reduces waste volume by rapidly eating organic waste, providing a practical substitute for conventional landfill disposal techniques. This contributes to reducing methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas frequently emitted by decomposing organic matter in landfills, and waste accumulation [31][32][33].…”