BSFL from humanure

velacreations

I was reading about different insect integrations with waste streams and came across this one:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... .12228/pdf

Quote:

objectives To determine the capacity of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) (Hermetia illucens) to convert fresh human faeces into larval biomass under different feeding regimes, and to determine how effective BSFL are as a means of human faecal waste management.

methods Black soldier fly larvae were fed fresh human faeces. The frequency of feeding, number of larvae and feeding ratio were altered to determine their effects on larval growth, prepupal weight, waste reduction, bioconversion and feed conversion rate (FCR).

results The larvae that were fed a single lump amount of faeces developed into significantly larger larvae and prepupae than those fed incrementally every 2 days; however, the development into pre- pupae took longer. The highest waste reduction was found in the group containing the most larvae, with no difference between feeding regimes. At an estimated 90% pupation rate, the highest bioconversion (16–22%) and lowest, most efficient FCR (2.0–3.3) occurred in groups that contained 10 and 100 larvae, when fed both the lump amount and incremental regime.

conclusion The prepupal weight, bioconversion and FCR results surpass those from previous studies into BSFL management of swine, chicken manure and municipal organic waste. This suggests that the use of BSFL could provide a solution to the health problems associated with poor sanitation and inadequate human waste management in developing countries.

So, feeding Black Soldier Fly Larvae fresh human faeces resulted in FCR of 2.0–3.3, which is better than a lot of insects, and better than BSFL on a lot of manures.

Now, they could be sterilized (chemically, like fermentation, or with heat) and fed to animals. Chickens, in particular, would be a good one for this, maybe dogs, too. I don't know if I would risk it with fish, but maybe.

An average human excretes 1.1 kg of faeces per day, which could make 330-500 grams of BSF daily! That's enough for several chickens/fish.

earthbound

Interesting thought..... I've been experimenting with more standard flies around here. I wondered where all the flies are coming from and realized the plumber left open the lid of the septic slightly... Placed a couple of fly traps near by and I must have caught many hundreds just in a few days.

Charlie

Everyone has their limits and this is mine.

velacreations

Well, when you consider an adult human produces .5 kg (not 1kg like in the OP), and that can produce 165-250g of BSFL, you realize real quick that recycling human nutrients could actually feed the human. 165g of BSFL have 60-70g of protein, which is enough for an adult human. Routed through fish or chickens, it will be less, but still, a considerable amount of the protein can be covered by the feces alone.

That's enough protein to feed 5 laying hens. It's enough to produce 15-20 kg of fish every 6 months (which is more than more home based AP systems have). Why are we buying fish feed, again?

Now, we all know the power of urine with the peeponics experiments, so how much of a human's diet could be fertilized/produced from the human's waste?

We may find that 75-90% is not unreasonable. The protein can be covered with the feces, and preliminary research suggests that anywhere between 50-100% of the carbs can be grown with nutrients in urine.

So, it's human-ponics now, I guess!

velacreations

Sleepe

I actually like the idea; the only downside is ensuring or developing a method to remove harmful bacteria and trying to avoid telling people the whole cycle of the food chain.
Pee is becoming (sort of) acceptable, I am not sure about 'humanure' though.

velacreations

yeah, we actually have a simple method for removing bacteria - heat. a little solar pasteurizer is all you need.

Pee is somewhat acceptable, but there is considerable nutrition in humanure, too. And even with pee, it doesn't seem like we are maximizing our resources, there, we could grow at least 90% of our diet with these resources.

scotty435

I'm kind of like Charlie on this subject.

Not that I'm interested in doing the solar pasteurizer but you'd have a tough time during the Winter here with sterilizing anything - probably just warm them up and make all the critters happy (and all your neighbors unhappy :headbang:

)

P.S. - I hope to have passed long before this becomes acceptable to even a small portion of the general public

velacreations

Would you be opposed to feeding them to your chickens or something like that? You could do a chemical pasteurization as well, like with ph adjustments.

scotty435

You mean the BSFL raised on Humanure? I think I'd be OK with feeding them to the chickens as long as the humanure was sterilized prior to going to the BSFL. Might need a bit of a clean up since there can be contaminants in human waste, like antibiotics and other drugs. There are some other things I'm not sure about concerning batch vs continuous production, mostly related to the heat of the pile and coliform growth. Might be worth knocking off any remaining bit left on the BSFL and giving them some UV light. I'm not sure most of these are valid concerns on my part - it's mostly a gross out thing

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BSFL from humanure

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