SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project includes the development of new methods to biodegrade waste plastics. Plastic waste is an significant environmental burden. Over 300 million tons of plastic are used each year, resulting in millions of tons of persistent plastic waste, some of which can take up to 600 years to degrade. Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) can digest polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, a persistent and widespread source of plastic waste. Beta Hatch Inc. is developing a novel approach to reduce plastic waste. As the mealworms feed, they convert polystyrene into protein and biological waste (frass), both valuable nutrient inputs for animal feed or for fertilizer. This project will screen mealworm strains to identify the best candidates for optimization, develop polystyrene feed mixes to improve the efficiency of digestion, and test the end-products to understand how these might be commercial used. The project will also confirm the safety of polystyrene derived biological products (mealworm protein and frass) for use in the production of non-food animals and fiber crops. This work will support the development of novel and commercially viable approaches for biodegradation of plastics. The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to develop the commercial potential of mealworms for plastic bioremediation. Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic long-chain hydrocarbon polymer. It is a major waste product that takes up 30% of landfill space. The formation of strong molecular bonds between neighboring styrene monomers makes polystyrene extremely stable and therefore extremely difficult to degrade. Mealworms are the only proven organism capable of depolymerizing and mineralizing polystyrene, with the help of beneficial gut microbes. However, for polystyrene biodegradation to be commercially viable, the efficiency of digestion needs to be increased, and the safety of products derived from PS feeding needs to be assessed. Existing work has shown that there is strain-specific variability in PS digestion, and that PS digestion efficiency is only ~50% without additional nutrients. Further, PS feeding may decrease the fertility of mealworms, which would limit the long-term commercial feasibility of mealworm based PS-digestion. This project will identify mealworm strains that show high potential for polystyrene (PS) digestion, test the ability to breed animals with enhanced PS capability, develop feed mixes for optimal efficiency of PS biodigestion, quantify impacts of PS feeding on mealworm life cycles, and collect preliminary data on toxicity of PS-derived biomass and frass products. These experiments support the objectives of 1) identifying pathways for scaling up PS biodigestion by mealworms, 2) integration of PS wastes as a feed for mealworm farming, and 3) collection of key data on the marketability of end-products from polystyrene digestion. This feasibility project?will also catalyze conversations with customers and regulators

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project are foundations for an emerging industry: insects in agriculture. Beta Hatch is pioneering the production of new animal feed ingredients, developing technology to mass produce insects, and creating STEM jobs. The proposed work will allow scaling insects as a sustainable protein-rich feed ingredient. With predictable year-round production, this will contribute to a more robust and secure agricultural system. The Beta Hatch insect ranch, which will be designed through integration of the results from this project, is an on-site solution to convert organic by- products into valuable feed ingredients and fertilizer. These ranches are being designed as conversions of underutilized spaces (warehouses and poultry barns), to bring jobs to rural and HUBZone areas. We work closely with farmers, our main customers, to establish the performance and economic value of our products. Insects provide nutrition and make animals healthier. Our frass (insect manure), is an organic fertilizer that stimulates healthy soils, and has no nitrates (no runoff). The proposed work will allow us to establish insects as the world?s most sustainable animal feed ingredient, and to disrupt the $400B animal feed market. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to cost effectively scale insect production for agricultural markets. Of the millions of insect species that exist, only a handful have been successfully reared under controlled conditions and even fewer have been mass produced. And yet insects have the potential to fill essential roles in agricultural supply chains by biodegrading wastes, removing or recycling toxins, and providing nutrition for animals. In order to meet the scale, quality and cost requirements for agricultural markets, significant R&D must solve some core challenges in insect mass production. We propose to integrate biological and engineering approaches to develop novel oviposition substrates, identify and mitigate causes of mortality, design automated and flexible diet handling systems, optimize rearing trays (the basic unit of production), and maximize yields with automated water and diet delivery. The proposed work will cut over 80% of our costs, produce several patents, and inform the design of a scalable insect ranching facility. As a natural part of animal diets, insects are a predictable protein-rich alternative feed ingredient, with year-round controlled production. In Phase 1 of this project, we established an insect breeding program, explored novel inorganic diets, and identified the core production challenges for scaling insects-as-feed. For this NSF SBIR Phase 2 project, we develop solutions that will reduce the cost of production and control the cost of future facilities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.