Yorkshire Water has embarked on a pilot scheme to understand how effective flies could be at processing sewage sludge.
The research will be undertaken with Fera to apply a process called insect bioconversion to wastewater treatment with black soldier fly larvae.
The pilot will test if the insects can be used to minimise the amount of final waste from a treatment plant. The fly larvae are fed waste and then processed into proteins and oils as an alternative protein source for feeding livestock.
They are already fed on agriculture and food waste but this is the first trial using sewage waste.
Richard Kershaw, wastewater innovation programme manager at Yorkshire, said the company was keen to explore innovative ways of dealing with the most challenging aspects of wastewater management, which includes treating and disposing of sewage sludge.
He added: “Insects may offer a circular, nature-based and cost-effective way to reduce the volume of sewage sludge that needs to be disposed of, hence our interest in and commitment to funding this preliminary work with Fera.”
Fera has led insect bioconversion research and development in Europe for a decade and is working to expand the scope of its work to factory production scale.
“Once the preliminary research has been completed, we will look to work with water company and commercial partners to fully explore the viability of insect bioconversion to help us manage this complex waste sustainably, safely and effectively,” Kershaw said.
Fera described the pilot as “limited in scope” by its design, but with potential for larger scale research work to utilise circular economy solutions to manage wastewater.