The need for dedicated pilot plant infrastructure for insect rearing and processing: a case-study from Belgium

Insects have the potential to form the basis of a sustainable value chain that plays a key role in the transition to a biobased economy. Numerous companies recognize the potential of insects, but immediate application on an industrial scale is hampered by several obstacles such as regulatory uncertainties and the need for support to upscale their processes. Another challenge is that only limited information is available on industrial insect rearing, and the information that is freely available often comes from small-scale research. Translating the research findings of that small-scale research to industrial scale is often cumbersome. In Belgium, KU Leuven and Thomas More in collaboration with VITO started doing research on insect rearing and processing about a decade ago. They recognized the need to add expertise on pilot scale, aside from their research on laboratory scale, as an intermediate step towards industrial production. The realisation of the Insect Pilot Plant in Belgium has enabled their ambition to offer such solutions at pilot scale. Additional benefit of having this pilot facility is that increased reliability and flexibility that comes with it enables the standardisation of all experiments, lab-scale as well as pilot scale, further increasing the expertise of the research centres involved and their ability to transfer that expertise to the sector.