Mar 23 2009

From Maggots to Biofuel

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Whoever coined the term "clean energy" probably didn't have mounds of rotting food and squirming maggots in mind. But EcoSystem Corp. of New York--a place that really knows garbage--has requested $1.75 million in federal subsidies to harvest Black Soldier Fly larvae for biofuels.

Most cookbooks are silent on the topic, but according to an informative press release from EcoSystem, dried up Black Soldier Fly larvae consist of about 42 percent protein and 35 percent natural oils, suitable for biodiesel feedstock and other chemical applications.

Although most people view them as nasty pests, EcoSystem welcomes the flies as cooperative business partners. With no prompting, they will happily lay countless eggs in food scrap waste, which totals tens of billions of pounds a year in the United States.

Best of all, according to the company's web site, the flies are "clean, energy-efficient and voracious. They rapidly consume large quantities of feed during maturation, without regard for the chemicals, toxins, bacteria and pathogens that would cripple algae and other bioreactor technologies." (The company might also have mentioned a new British medical study, which found that flesh-eating maggots can clean wounds five times faster than conventional treatments.)

Converting the larvae to usable oil is "insanely simple," the company's president told GreenTechMedia's Jeff St. John.

Based on the volume of usable food waste available in the United States, the company estimates that it's maggots could produce up to 100 million gallons per year of natural oils as feedstock for biofuels production. However, as one skeptic noted, "100 million gallons is 2.4 million barrels, about what the U.S. consumes in nine hours."

 

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