As part of the SUStainable INsect CHAIN (SUSINCHAIN), we aim to make it easier to use insects as a new and more sustainable source of protein in the feed industry.

The traditional way of drying insects includes (1) using hot air that can char the insects, or (2) freeze-drying which requires high amounts of energy. Both of these methods can adversely affect the nutritional value of the insects.

In the SUSINCHAIN project, MEAM is responsible for optimizing microwave drying of three insect species using three different industrial microwave dryers, by investigating the ideal processing conditions for each dryer and each species.

In this project, we use microwave technology to create electrically heated catalytic reactor technologies that convert biogas into syngas in a more efficient, sustainable and compact way.

Compared to large-volume reactors with fired burners, ēQATOR’s reactors achieve:

• A size reduction of up to 90% of the total reactor unit
• Up to 50-75% reduction in catalyst volume

Implementing ēQATOR technology will:

• Decrease life cycle CO₂ emissions for syngas production by 60 to 80%
• Save from 7 Mt CO₂ a year in 2030 up to around 45 Mt CO₂ a year in 2045

Because of its focus on renewable energy sources, fast response time, and potential to heat catalyst materials to 700°C and higher, microwave technology has a small environmental footprint and a sustainable life cycle assessment. Here, MEAM shows the way to upscaling.

Drying alone represents around 15-25% of all energy used in the processing industry in the developed world, which is likely to become much more with increasing use of biomass. Sustainable food and biobased processing can only be realised by replacing our current evaporative dewatering processes by processes
using more effective driving forces. ELECTRIFIED uses electric driving forces to extract water from biomaterials, mostly in liquid form. This is done by making use of a combination of molecularly designed electroresponsive hydrogels, well-controlled electro-osmosis and electrohydrodynamic drying.

In this fundamental reseach MEAM contributes knowledge on the combination of microwave energy with electrohydrodynmic drying to low water activity levels. The development of concepts to combining these processes will be core of the efforts from MEAM’s part. With the industrial experience at hand, MEAM also advices on the upscaling potential of the newly developed designs.