UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia and Entomo AgroIndustrial have launched the University-Company Chair for Research on ‘Industrial Production of Insects and Circular Economy in the Management of Bio-waste’.

Its aim is to foster business innovation, to generate scientific knowledge and, at the same time, to disseminate it and create training programmes in the field of industrial production of insects to transform organic biodegradable waste into compounds that may be of interest for fields such as agriculture, livestock and the pharmaceutical industry.  

To do so, the larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), which stand out for their ability to devour any type of bio-waste and to transform it into high added-value raw material, will be used. During their growth, the larvae transform the bio-waste into compost, which is useful for the fertilisation of the fields. Then, the larvae are ground to obtain a flour rich in protein, protein hydrolysates, fats, lauric acid or chitin, to generate chitosan and organic fertiliser. The entire process is carried out at the facilities of the Entomo AgroIndustrial. Furthermore, this Chair will carry out research in the field of animal and human feeding to obtain new products starting from insects. 

“We have created a new value chain starting from bio-waste and from a pioneer industrial sector: scalable, profitable and offshore. To do so, in November 2019, Entomo AgroIndustrial already created the first European Research Centre for the development of its technology, in collaboration with the City Council of Cehegín, whose Department of Economic Promotion, Industry and Employment put at the service of the Chair the city council means addressed to facilitating projects for entrepreneurs, such as the “Vivero de Empresas”, as Diego Amores, CEO of the company and director of the Chair, points out.  The Chair will be coordinated by José María Cayuela, vice-dean of the Bachelor’s Degrees in Gastronomy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Food Science and Technology of UCAM, who assures that “the development of these bio-refineries will allow the transformation of organic bio-waste, contributing to their reduction and, therefore, it will allow us to adapt to the new limitations of the EU aimed at protecting the environment”.  

The Chair will collaborate in bachelor’s, post-graduate and doctoral degrees training programmes, including placements and research programmes for students. Likewise, a section on entrepreneurship and employability is foreseen in this new market niche through the application of new processing technologies, for which the Chair will count on the collaboration of the Murcia Institute of Technology (ITM) of UCAM.