Local circular economy: BSF insect rearing in the Italian Agri-Food Industry.

With a growing population, both food and waste production will increase. There is an urgent need for innovative ways of valorizing waste. The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.

Techno-economic assessment of biorefinery scenarios based on mollusc and fish residuals.

Biorefineries aim to maximise resource recovery from organic sources that have been traditionally considered wastes. In this respect, leftovers from mollusc and seafood processing industries can be a source of multiple bioproducts such as protein hydrolysates (PH), calcium carbonate and co-composted biochar (COMBI). This study aims to evaluate different scenarios of biorefineries fed by mollusc (MW) and fish wastes (FW) to understand which is the most convenient to maximise their profitability.

Evaluating the potential of hydrochar as a soil amendment.

In this study, hydrochar (HC), a carbon-rich product originated from hydrothermal conversion treatment (HTC), was obtained from wastes of the wine and dairy industries. The effect of mixing secondary char and compost was tested, before and after the aerobic mixing of compost (COM) and HC at increasing doses (from 15 to 75 Mg ha DM), in an effort to lower the HC phytotoxicity due to potential phytotoxic compounds of secondary char. The results indicated that, after the aerobic stabilization, the mix HC/COM was able to double the plant growth in comparison to COM alone.

Phosphorus recovery from high solid content liquid fraction of digestate using seawater bittern as the magnesium source.

Phosphorus recovery from digestate is considered a challenge because the possible discharge can lead to eutrophication. This study focuses on phosphorus recovery as struvite from the liquid fraction of swine manure digestate at a high total solids concentration, by using a lab-scale crystallizer operated in continuous mode (7 L·d). A by-product of salt production (seawater bittern, SWB) was assessed as Mg source for the formation of struvite instead of a chemical dosage (MgCl) within a circular economy approach.