Biopolymers from insects

Entoplast正在生产有价值的生物聚合物（甲壳素/壳聚糖），这些聚合物是从能够再处理大量有机废物的昆虫（黑水虻）中提取的。目前，95%的甲壳素/壳聚糖来自贝类。现有方法的可扩展性是困难的，因为生产依赖于渔业工业废物，它需要有害的化学品用于甲壳素/壳聚糖分离，并且产量低。然而，甲壳素/壳聚糖全球市场仍然完全依赖于甲壳类动物，即使从这种来源的生产在产量、成本和输出产品的质量方面效率很低。尽管存在这些限制，全球市场价值为10亿英镑，到本世纪末可能增加到30亿英镑。该项目采用了一种新的方法，从昆虫中生产甲壳素/壳聚糖生物塑料，作为多个行业的适当原料。在这种情况下，我们的首选目标是药品市场，甲壳素和壳聚糖因其抗菌和生物相容性而备受赞赏。由于甲壳素是昆虫表皮的主要成分，因此Entoplast的工艺基于从黑蝇中采购甲壳素/壳聚糖。之所以选择这种苍蝇，是因为它的幼虫在生长过程中会进食大量各种各样的有机废物，并将其转化为生物质。鉴于有机废物几乎是无限的可用性，我们的工艺具有高度可扩展性，符合循环经济的概念，并且可以以低成本实现。此外，之前的实验证明，Entoplast的化学提取系统可以从黑水虻中产生，本申请的目的是改进我们的甲壳素/壳聚糖分离方法，以提高输出产品的质量和数量，并确保英国/欧洲市场的4%。

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.