PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Conversion of solid organic wastes into oil via Boettcherisca peregrine (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) larvae and optimization of parameters for biodiesel production.

  • Sen Yang,
  • Qing Li,
  • Qinglan Zeng,
  • Jibin Zhang,
  • Ziniu Yu,
  • Ziduo Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045940
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 9
p. e45940

Abstract

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The feedstocks for biodiesel production are predominantly from edible oils and the high cost of the feedstocks prevents its large scale application. In this study, we evaluated the oil extracted from Boettcherisca peregrine larvae (BPL) grown on solid organic wastes for biodiesel production. The oil contents detected in the BPL converted from swine manure, fermentation residue and the degreased food waste, were 21.7%, 19.5% and 31.1%, respectively. The acid value of the oil is 19.02 mg KOH/g requiring a two-step transesterification process. The optimized process of 12∶1 methanol/oil (mol/mol) with 1.5% H(2)SO(4) reacted at 70°C for 120 min resulted in a 90.8% conversion rate of free fatty acid (FFA) by esterification, and a 92.3% conversion rate of triglycerides into esters by alkaline transesterification. Properties of the BPL oil-based biodiesel are within the specifications of ASTM D6751, suggesting that the solid organic waste-grown BPL could be a feasible non-food feedstock for biodiesel production.