Dear All,

I just wanted to give a bit of background detail on my PhD before the upcoming Webinar.

I started my PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in May of 2011, with my submission date being May 2014. I am currently analysing and writing up my results, so what is due to be presented at the webinar will not be the final results, but a snippet of them! My PhD supervisor is Dr. Mary Cameron, and I also have Dr. Walter Gibson (Bear Valley Ventures) and Dr. Jeroen Ensink (LSHTM) on my advisory committee.

I have worked in Cambodia with the sanitation marketing NGO WaterSHED, but more recently I have been based in South Africa. I was hosted by the University of Stellenbosch and BioCycle, a joint initiative between AgriProtein Technologies and Bear Valley Ventures, who are looking at developing commercially viable and scalable methods of using black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) to convert human faecal waste into valuable products.

The aim of my PhD is to determine what factors affect the development of BSFL on pit latrine material. This includes looking at feeding rate, larval density, and moisture content of feed. The research will also focus on characterising pit latrine material (total solids, pH, chemical oxygen demand, ammonium, carbohydrates, and proteins) from different layers of a number of pit latrines. These layers will then be fed to the BSFL and the development monitored. The results will be analysed to try to determine what effects, if any, these characteristics have on the development of BSFL. Finally the PhD will look at what effect common cleaning chemicals have on the development of BSFL.

If people are interested in any previous research then check out my poster from the 2012 World Water Week (attached), my PhD upgrading report (attached), and the recently published paper on BSFL growth rates on fresh human faeces (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tmi.12228/abstract).

Thanks,

Ian Banks

Dear all,

In case you have been following this thread and are interested in my research project on black solider flies, then the upcoming webinar number 6 on “productive sanitation” could be interesting for you:

My presentation is entitled:

When flies are the good guys: can black soldier flies (BSF) efficiently reduce faecal sludge from pit latrines? Research into variations in BSF growth related to the amount of waste reduced

The webinar will take place on:

Tuesday 25 February 2014, 16:30 - 17:15
(CET - Central European Time; time converter to find your local time: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

More details of the webinar, which has 3 presenters, are available here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/139-in...5-february-2014#7239

There is no need to download any software to attend (simply go to this website: seint.adobeconnect.com/seiwebinar/). However, you must obtain the password to enter the room. To obtain the password, please e-mail Elisabeth von Muench: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I look forward to meeting you at the webinar and answering any questions you may have. If you have questions about the content of my research before the webinar, please put them here on the forum.

Cheers,

Ian

Re: Visit to Agriprotein facilities at Stellenbosch University test farm in South Africa

Just as as disclaimer, I have very little knowledge of the details of how the BSF project for Agriprotein was set up, but after a recent visit, some of the researchers there were gracious enough to show me around the facilities and explain their plans for scaling up production over the next year. This may be of interest to others trying to set up BSF projects elsewhere. They have a plan to use the associated non-profit BioCycle pilot project as a franchise model where people in other locations could learn how to set up their own small scale BSF larvae production facilities: www.thebiocycle.com/.

The commercial side is run by Agriprotein, which is planning to produce larvae and potentially other products from the by-products left over from what the larvae can't eat for other uses like as a soil additive, and to grow crops for biofuel production potentially. For more details check out their website: www.agriprotein.com/.

I'll attach some photos from the visit. I spoke with Ian Banks who is a PhD researcher from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who is visiting Stellenbosch until December and researching how the BSF deals with pit latrine waste. He's pretty busy, but you can try to reach him via e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


(BSF colony in temp/humidity controlled room)

("bug barrel" for small scale larvae production 1-5 households)
(feeding bins for larvae at different growth stages)
(feeding troughs with food scraps)

Hi Sophia,

Sorry for the late reply, I had not seen your initial post until today. I am also based at Elsenburg where Cobus is the Programme Manager. It would be very happy to meet up and discuss the work that goes on here, and your work too. Feel free to contact me whenever is suitable. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 0726113869

Thanks,

Ian

P.S. Thank you Chris for your speedier response

Thanks for the information Chris. I will try to get in touch with Cobus directly.

Regards,
Sophia

Greetings Sophia

To see black soldier flies in action go to Stellenbosch

Cobus Kotze
Programme Manager: BSF
083 395-1860
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cobus works at Elsenburg outside of Stellenbosch, and wants to use black fly larvae to convert faeces into protein (as a replacement for fish meal). This project is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There is a 50/50 interview on YouTube.

Chris Buckley
Pollution Research Group
University of KwaZulu-Natal

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Note by moderators: This post was made by a former user with the login name ChrisBuckley who is no longer a member of this discussion forum.

Hi Ian, I am a PhD student at the University of Cape Town focusing on sustainability/equity considerations for sanitation in low-income areas in and around Cape Town. I'll try e-mailing you too, but I thought I'd start with the forum. It would be great to meet up with you when you get back from the Eastern Cape. Thanks!

Regards,
Sophia Pan

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This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mobile:+27(72)528-2506

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the advice, I am about to head to the Eastern Cape to survey suitable sites for pit latrine material collection. I doubt I will have time to visit Durban while I am here as I have to conduct all of my PhD research before December. I will not be returning to London until then but I will contact Elisa when I do.

Thanks again,

Ian

Greetings Ian
While in South Africa I suggest you make a trip to Durban to visit the activities of the eThekwini Municipality in their sanitation roll-out.

When back in London look up ELISA Roma at LSHTM as she is very knowledgable about activities in Durban.

Chris Buckley
Pollution Research Group
Durban

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Note by moderators: This post was made by a former user with the login name ChrisBuckley who is no longer a member of this discussion forum.

Hi All,

I am a PhD student with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, currently working in South Africa with Stellenbosch University and BioCycle (see Cobus's post above).

My research is concentrating on the efficiency of BSFL at consuming pit latrine waste extracted from dry latrines in South Africa. I have recently collected approximately 900kg of pit material from self-built latrines in an informal settlement in Cape Town. I am soon going to be feeding it to the BSFL to discover just how well they can cope with the material, and try to determine the optimum feeding rate and larval density for pit material. My later work will focus on determining the BSFL's efficiency at feeding on the lower layers of pit material, as well as a homogenised mix, aiming to find out how efficient they will be when presented with material of different "qualities".

To collect the layers of material, I plan to travel to the Eastern Cape, where I have identified a couple of municipalities that have high numbers of latrines. I welcome any suggestions or advice from anyone with experience of working in South Africa on sanitation. Also, if anyone has any questions regarding my research please get in touch.

Cheers,

Ian Banks
Research Degree Student
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel# (SA) +27 (0) 726 113 869
Tel# (UK) +44 (0) 7830 403 774

Hi All
We are in the process of setting up a community scale BSF waste processing system at Klipheuwel, South Africa. We will collect about 500kg of faecal waste per day and hope to collect another 500kg of kitchen waste to make a 50/50 blended feed mix to feed to the larvae. We are doing the whole shebang where we collect the waste, process it with BSF larvae, make animal feed from the larvae and feed it to some layer hens to eventually sell eggs back into the community.

We have done quite a bit of work on the farming of the larvae in a small-factory setup by improving larvae yields and bioconversion efficiencies. Our plan was initially to feed the larvae back to the chickens directly and use the residue as compost, but based on the amazing work done by Cecilia and her team we decided to rather boil the larvae for an hour (to completely wash and sterilize them) and using the fibrous residue as fuel for the larvae processing instead of a compost to reduce our overall risk.
We are currently processing waste from the community at our facilities at Stellenbosch but should have the new plant up and running in a few weeks so I will post some picks then.
Best Regards
Cobus Kotze