METHOD FOR CONVERTING FOOD WASTE AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL WASTE INTO INVERTEBRATE FEED

• US 20170265496A1
• Filed: 07/29/2015
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: River Road Research, Inc.
• Original Assignee: River Road Research, Inc.
• Inventors: Popa, Radu, Nealson, Kenneth H., Schechter, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 10,588,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A23K 10/00 Animal feeding-stuffs
• CPC Class Codes: A23K 10/12 by fermentation of natural products, e.g. of vegetable material, animal waste material or biomass
• CPC Class Codes: A23K 50/90 for insects, e.g. bees or silkworms
• CPC Class Codes: B09B 2101/00 Type of solid waste
• CPC Class Codes: B09B 3/00 Destroying solid waste or transforming solid waste into something useful or harmless
• CPC Class Codes: B09B 5/00 Operations not covered by a single other subclass or by a single other group in this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 21/00 Bioreactors or fermenters specially adapted for specific uses digesters for manure A01C3/023; apparatus for PCR B01L7/52; destroying or transforming solid waste B09B3/00; methods for genetic engineering C12N15/00, C12Q1/68; nucleic acid amplification reactions C12Q1/6844
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/78 Recycling of wood or furniture waste

Abstract

Biological waste such as food, organic or other biologically-derived waste is converted into shelf-stable and health-safe invertebrate feed. The method for converting includes pre-treating waste by fragmenting, reducing microbial contaminants, optionally amending with components that optimize fermentation, inoculating with microorganisms and mixing. Fermentation takes place in a bioreactor and produces fermentation leachate and solid fermentate. In the post-treatment steps, the solid fermentate is separated from the fermentation leachate. The solid fermentate is ground, dewatered and milled. The solid fermentate can be used as an invertebrate feed with or without further processing.

Claims

1. A method for converting biological waste to invertebrate feed, the method comprising:

pre-treating biological waste, wherein the pretreating comprises;

fragmenting the waste,

reducing microbial contaminants in the waste,

inoculating the waste with microorganisms, and

mixing the waste;

providing a bioreactor;

performing fermentation of the waste under anaerobic conditions, wherein the fermentation comprises fermenting the waste in the bioreactor to produce a fermentation product comprising fermentation leachate and solid fermentate;

post-treating the fermentation product, wherein the post-treating comprises;

separating solid fermentate from fermentation leachate in the fermentation product,

grinding the solid fermentate,

dewatering the solid fermentate, and/or

milling the solid fermentate,

thereby producing an invertebrate feed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological waste is optimal biological waste or low efficiency biological waste.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-treating comprises amending the waste with fermentation-optimizing agents.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising monitoring the fragmenting continuously and/or controlling the fragmenting to optimize the average particle size and particle size variance.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising monitoring the fermenting.

6. The method of claim 1 comprising analyzing the fermentation leachate.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising controlling the temperature of fermentation.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising controlling the pH of fermentation.

9. The method of claim 8 comprising adding lactic acid to the fermentation.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising controlling the Brix % of fermentation.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the density of microorganisms inoculating the waste is ≧

10⁵-10⁶ cells per ml.