Biopolymers from insects

Entoplast生产有价值的生物聚合物（几丁质/壳聚糖），这些聚合物是从昆虫（黑兵蝇）中提取的，能够再处理大量有机废物。目前，95%的甲壳素/壳聚糖来源于贝类。现有方法的可扩展性困难，因为生产依赖于渔业废弃物，分离几丁质/壳聚糖需要有害化学物质，产量低。然而，几丁质/壳聚糖的全球市场仍然完全依赖于甲壳类动物，即使从产量、成本和产出产品的质量方面来看，这种来源的生产效率很低。尽管存在这些限制，但全球市场价值已达10亿英镑，到本十年结束时可能会增至30亿英镑。本项目为以昆虫为原料生产甲壳素/壳聚糖生物塑料提供了一种新的途径。在这种情况下，我们的首选目标是医药产品市场，其中几丁质和壳聚糖因其防腐和生物相容性而受到高度赞赏。由于几丁质是昆虫角质层的主要成分，Entoplast的工艺是基于从黑兵蝇中获取几丁质/壳聚糖。之所以选择这种苍蝇，是因为它的幼虫会以大量各种各样的有机废物为食，并将其转化为生物量。考虑到有机废物几乎无限的可用性，我们的工艺具有高度可扩展性，它符合循环经济的概念，并且可以以低成本实现。此外，先前的实验证明，Entoplast的化学提取系统从黑兵蝇中提取的质量高于目前的甲壳类动物。本申请的目的是改进我们的甲壳素/壳聚糖分离方法，以提高产品的质量和数量，并确保4%的英国/欧洲市场。

Entoplast is producing valuable biopolymers (chitin/chitosan) that are extracted from insects (the Black Soldier Fly) able of reprocessing large quantities of organic waste. Currently, 95% of chitin/chitosan is sourced from shellfish. The scalability of existing methods is difficult as production relies on the fishery industry waste, it needs harmful chemicals for chitin/chitosan isolation and yields low output volumes.However, the chitin/chitosan global market is still completely dependent on crustaceans even if the production from this source is poorly efficient in terms of volumes, costs and quality of the output products. Despite those limitations, the global market is valued at £1B, potentially increasing to £3B by the decade's end.This project carries a novel approach to producing chitin/chitosan bioplastic from insects as an appropriate feedstock in multiple industries. In this context, our preferred target is the market of pharmaceutical products where chitin and chitosan are highly appreciated for their antiseptic and biocompatible properties.Since chitin is a major component of the insect cuticle, Entoplast's process is based on sourcing chitin/chitosan from the Black Soldier Fly. This fly species was chosen because its larvae grow feeding massive quantities of a wide variety of organic waste, transforming it into biomass.Given the almost unlimited availability of organic waste, our process is highly scalable, it is aligned with circular economy concepts and can be realized at low costs.Furthermore, previous experiments proved that Entoplast's chemical extraction system yields, from the Black Soldier Fly, higher masses than the current crustacean sources.The aim of this application is to refine our chitin/chitosan isolation method to increase the quality and the quantity of the output products and secure 4% of the UK/European market.