How data-driven automation is powering feed and fertiliser production

Black soldier flies (BSF) are revolutionising the conversion of organic waste into sustainable animal feed and fertiliser, but automation is truly amplifying its impact

The potential of black soldier flies to transform organic waste into nutrient-rich feed and fertiliser is widely recognised. Yet, the often-overlooked reality is the sheer labour intensity of traditional BSF rearing — a challenge automation is poised to solve.

One of the major hurdles to scaling production has long been the manual, time-consuming process of feeding, observing, and ultimately the harvesting of the BSF larvae.

Data-driven automation offers a compelling solution to tackle this bottleneck. It takes over and streamlines this laborious process, ensuring consistent rearing conditions, reducing downtime, and accelerating the turnaround time for the larvae by up to three times.

The effectiveness of automation, however, hinges on the quality and accuracy of the data it relies on. Having synergy between data-driven precision and automation is what unlocks scaling efficiency.

Leveraging data

At Ento, the data-driven approach we’ve adopted since our inception guides our operations from the initial stages, even before the larvae are fed.

The optimal composition of their feed — organic byproducts sourced from a variety of food producers — is critical. Prior to feeding, organic material is rigorously inspected in our on-site lab and sorted in our waste processing facility before undergoing a specialised formulation and biological fermentation process to maximise the nutrient intake for the BSF larvae.

Fundamental to maintaining quality and consistency in this process is our continuously expanding dataset, including metrics like temperature, moisture, humidity, and the nutritional analyses of organic waste products, which are collected and analysed over time.

The data points help us to precisely engineer and refine the larvae feed in real time depending on the composition of the byproducts. Simultaneously, our automated system, powered by a network of sensors measuring various metrics, intelligently optimises harvest cycles to align with these fluctuating feed types, a task that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to manage manually.

From this point onward, until the larvae reach maturity, the entire process is automated. This includes the harvesting process where the larvae are separated from their excrement, which is processed into nutrient-rich fertiliser. Live larvae are then processed further through pasteurisation, drying, and refining into insect meal and lipids for animal feed and biofuels.

Scaling efficiently

This level of automated efficiency is critical for optimising resource use and ensuring economic viability. Especially in a land-scarce, high-cost environment like Singapore, automation is not only beneficial, but also imperative to minimise space, manpower, and costs.

The results speak for themselves. Run by a lean team of just eight specialists, our 10,000-square-foot facility manages at least half a billion BSF at any given time. Since implementing our in-house automation system, we’ve tripled our production capacity within a span of six months.

Crucially, our cost-effective approach to automation avoids the typical capital expenditure associated with traditional industrial automation systems and prevents increased feed production costs, despite the high-cost environment.

This proven design also directly informs the solutions we offer our clients, many of whom are agricultural and food producers looking to implement sustainable closed-loop systems.

Closing the loop

Driven by a growing emphasis on circular economy principles, many businesses, including our clients, continue to seek alternatives to close the loop on their waste and organic byproduct streams.

Most are either upcycling waste into valuable products for internal reuse or to minimise external imports, or to generate new revenue streams through the sale of new high-value product offerings.

A notable example is Singapore General Hospital, which upcycles organic waste from its central kitchen into EcoBoost, Ento’s nutrient-rich organic fertiliser that is used in the hospital’s green spaces.

Similar initiatives are gaining traction in Singapore, which is grappling with an urgent food waste challenge. Each year, the city-state generates up to 750,000 tonnes of food waste, or over 10% of the country’s total waste, data from the National Environment Agency shows.

For such highly dense urban environments, embracing circular economy principles in food production offers key advantages including reduced dependence on imported farming products, enhanced cost-effectiveness of feed, and improved local food security.

Ultimately, data-driven automation provides a vital pathway to addressing these sustainability challenges and shaping the future of feed and fertiliser production.

By streamlining operations and facilitating the closure of waste loops, it ensures both efficiency and environmental responsibility, thereby securing a more resilient and circular food system.

This commentary was ghost-written by me for a biotech start-up CEO and was first published here.