Waste-to-resource
Insects provide sustainable solutions
Excerpts from Channel NewsAsia
Excerpts from CNN International
Black soldier flies (BSF; Hermetia illucens) are often used for food-waste valorisation and sustainable protein production. BSF larvae are voracious eaters that can consume and convert nearly 70% of food waste into larval biomass of high protein and fat. We are interested in optimizing these flies to convert heterogenous urban food waste into animal feed and fertilizers by selecting for key traits that increases the adult egg production and improves larval recycling efficiency (Zhang et al. 2023; Fuhrmann et al 2025). Specifically, our research addresses how genetics, nutrition and rearing conditions affect reproductive output, sex-specific investment and long-term industrial breeding (Silvaraju et al. 2024; Zhang et al. 2025).
Addressing environmental variation
To provide precise environmental metrics, we built custom respiration chambers to simultaneously record substrate pH, temperature, CO₂ and NH₃ emissions, relative humidity, airflow and net mass change for three stacked rearing crates. Temperature and gas‑exchange directly reflected the metabolic activity during larval growth, linking specific environmental variables to biological performance metrics. We used these chambers to quantify how food waste regulates larval performance through microbial-driven temperature dynamics. This industry-facing project was first study to systematically assess heat generation directly from heterogeneous food waste.
Adapted from Fuhrmann et al. 2024 Waste Management
Addressing genomic variation
Addressing genomic variation in black soldier fly (BSF) populations is important because BSF farming is increasingly transitioning from small-scale insect rearing into large-scale industrial domestication. We demonstrated that BSF populations can diverge genetically within only a few years under captive breeding and artificial selection. Using genome-wide RADseq analyses across multiple domesticated, selectively bred and wild-derived populations, we identified rapid shifts in population structure, reduced genetic diversity and signatures of selection linked to domestication.
Adapted from from Silvaraju et al. 2026 BMC Biology