Scaling up the insect industry green impact through deployment of industrial insect technology

Nasekomo completed successfully a project on scaling up the insect industry’s green impact through the deployment of innovative industrial insect multiplication technologies. The project was kicked-off in July 2021 under Innovation Norway, the Norwegian Government’s instrument for supporting innovation and development.

The main objective of the project was to increase the company’s competitiveness through development of a series of technologies leading to an automated insect multiplication and bioconversion allowing the production at industrial scale of sustainable and environmentally friendly insect’s proteins.

The technology deployed within the project allows Nasekomo to implement its strategy of creating a circular ecosystem in which the company can not only to supply the feed manufacturers with high-quality sustainable insect-protein products, but also to operate as specialized service provider to other companies who either already have waste streams they need to responsibly dispose of (waste management companies and agro-industrials) or companies looking to enter the industry to diversify their portfolio – energy, utilities, construction companies. Project objectives enabled also further growth of an already green and circular industry – the insect industry.

Within the project Nasekomo deployed four main groups of solutions that enabled the functioning of company’s Insect Multiplication Centre and the supply of neonate larvae to insect bioconversion farms:

• Neonate Qualifier deployment – neonate analysis technology that is AI- and machine-learning-enabled. The Neonate Qualifier will sort young larvae based on a set of criteria such as size, diameter, shape, mobility, health parameters (e.g. presence of parasites), etc.
• Aligning the output of neonates from the Multiplication Center to the amounts of larvae needed by the bioconversion centers. The solution will allow Nasekomo to control the amount of larvae produced by the IMC in accordance to the demand from the IBFs through cool storage where larval development can be slowed down.
• Deploying technology for transferring neonates into cool-storage
• Transport of the neonates to the bioconversion space and seeding (placing the larvae) on organic biomass.

Проектът е осъществен с финансовата подкрепа на Норвежкия финансов механизъм 2014-2021, в рамките на програма “Развитие на бизнеса, иновации и МСП в България”.