Utm Acee 052-063
Utm Acee 052-063
Utm Acee 052-063
Abstract
Bioconversion by Hermetia illucens larvae using three types of organic waste
via fruit waste, palm decanter cake and treated sewage sludge as low fat feed
has been investigated in this study. Hermetia illucens larvae were used to
transform the organic waste into higher value product. The present study
examines the effect of feed types on the fatty acid composition particularly on
lauric acid, C12:0 metabolized by Hermetia illucens larvae. In order to
investigate the effect of feed on larvae’s’ fatty acid composition, the proximate
analyses were carried out to determine the feed composition prior feeding to the
larvae. The composition analysis of lipid content found in the feed were
0.57±0.47% , 1.24±0.06% and 12.92±0.68% from treated sewage sludge, fruit
waste and palm decanter, respectively. It was evident that, there was an
increased in lipid content found in the larvae biomass derived from sewage
sludge, fruit waste and palm decanter. The results revealed that, the amount of
lipid produced by the larvae biomass were 29.85, 44.46 and 36.51% derived
from the sewage sludge, fruit waste and palm decanter cake, respectively.
Besides that, the fatty acid produced by the larvae has higher saturated fatty
acids than unsaturated fatty acids. The total saturated fatty acid produced by
Hermetia illucens larvae fed with treated sewage sludge, fruit waste and palm
decanter was 81.95%, 91.79% and 76.47%, respectively. Despite feeding with
assorted feed, the most abundance compositions of fatty acid were lauric acid,
C12:0. The highest amount of lauric acid produced from the larval biomass was
76.13% fed with fruit waste.
Keywords: Bioconversion, Organic waste, Hermetia illucens larvae, Fatty
acid methyl ester.
52
Nomenclatures
MW Molecular weight
V Volume, mL
W Weight, g
Abbreviations
DMS Dinitrosalicylic acid
FAME Fatty acid methyl esters
FID Flame ionization detector
FrW Fruit waste
GC-MS Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy
HIL Hermetia illucens larvae
PD Palm decanter
SS Sewage sludge
1. Introduction
The exploration of renewable energy and recovery of valuable chemicals from
waste has drawn great attentions and widespread of interest by various parties. In
this respect, bioconversion process offers an appealing prospect for waste
conversion. Bioconversion is a process by means of involving a microorganism
such as yeast, fungi, and bacteria or alternatively from terrestrial invertebrates
such as insect’s larval to convert organic waste into higher value product. Such
natural biosystem not only enhanced decomposition of waste but also favours the
conversion of waste to value added product or known as “upcycling”.
For instance, lipids accumulated from oleaginous microorganism have been
reported for biodiesel production via bioconversion process. Previous studies
showed that lipid is one of the major components produced in the biomass of the
oleagineous microorganism during the bioconversion. It is reported that, the
oleaginous micrrorganism are able to accumulate and store lipid from minimum
limit of about 20% up to 70% of their dry biomass weight [1, 2]. These studies
were done using municipal and industrial wastewater as feed by inoculating
oleagineous microorganism such as Cryptococus curvatus [3-5], Rhodotorula
glutinis [6], Trichosporon dematis [7], Trichosporon coremiiforme [8],
Mortierella isabellina [9], Rhodotula gultinis [4], Rhodococus opacus [4] and
Lipomyces starkeyi [10] .
Apparently, there are minimal studies conducted on the lipid produced from
terrestrial invertebrate such as insect’s larvae. The utilization of the insect’s larvae
was mainly focuses as food source for animal feed, poultry and aquaculture.
Insect meals are being considered as an alternative animal feed owing to its high
protein source and are relatively cheaper compared to fishmeals.
Presently, lipid from terrestrial invertebrate such as Hermetia illucens larvae is
being explored for biodiesel production. Hermetia illucens, member of
Stratiomyidea widely found in tropical climate and have been noted for its lipid
content for at least 30% and on dry weight basis. Lipid profiling conducted by Li et
al. [11] revealed 10 kinds of fatty acid predominantly from C10 to C22, consisting
of 15.8% of saturated fatty acid and 39.8% unsaturated fatty acid. Their study
showed the highest saturated fatty acid is lauric acid (35.6%) followed by palmitic
acid (14.8%) and highest unsaturated fatty acid obtained is oleinic acid (23.6%)
through the bioconversion of dairy manure. Similarly, the fatty acid results obtained
by Zheng et al. [12] was congruent with Li et al. [11] even when fed with restaurant
waste and rice straw as feed. The findings from Li et al. [11] and Zheng et al. [12]
revealed the highest fatty acid produced was also lauric acid (27.8%).
Up till now, very limited information is reported on fatty acid particularly
lauric acid produced from Hermetia illucens larval feedstock as a value added
product. To the best of our knowledge, no work has been reported on the lauric
acid production from Hermetia illucens larval. The lauric acid or known as
monolaurin is one of the valuable product for its anti-microbial and anti-fungal
properties. Lauric acid sources are mainly found in coconut milk, coconut oil and
grated coconut. Therefore, this paper is aimed to compare the effect of feed such
as fruit waste, treated sewage sludge and palm decanter cake on the amount of
lauric acid produced by Hermetia illucens larvae via bioconversion process.
2. Methodology
2.1. Feed preparation
The organic waste such as sewage sludge (SS), fruit waste (FrW) and palm
decanter (PD) collected were used as feed for Hermetia illucens larvae (HIL). All
the organic waste samples were prepared in a stock and kept in refrigerator at
−18°C to maintain the samples integrity. Table 1 summarizes the location of the
waste collection.
Table 1. Sampling Location for Organic Waste.
Types of organic waste Location
Sewage sludge IWK, Kampar
Fruit waste Fruit stalls, Kampar
Cahaya Muda Palm Oil Mill, Bidor and Tiang Siang
Palm decanter
Palm Oil Mill, Air Kuning
`
2.2. Proximate analysis of feed composition
The first step in the chemical evaluation of a feed ingredient is usually the
proximate analysis, where the material is subjected to a series of relatively simple
chemical tests so as to determine the content of moisture, crude protein, crude
lipid, crude fiber, ash and digestible carbohydrate. All the analysis was done in
triplicates. Detailed methods are elaborated in the following subsections. Table 2
summarised the methods employed in this feed analysis [13].
where,
W1 is the weight of the aluminum dish
W2 is the weight of the fresh feed and aluminum dish
W3 is the weight of the dried feed and aluminum dish
where,
W1 is the weight of dried feed
W2 is the weight of the boiling flask
W3 is the weight of the extract and boiling flask
sulphuric acid into the digestion tube. Another control digestion tube containing
whatman filter paper only and without any sample with concentrated sulphuric
acid and catalyst was prepared to correct for any nitrogen which might be present
and also to serve as blank. The Kjeldahl digester pre-heat at 300°C while
preparing the digester tubes. Digester tube with sample was loaded onto the
Kjeldahl digester and allowed to digest for approximately 30 minutes or until
white fumes appeared in the tubes. Next, the temperature was increased to 380°C
for an hour which was followed by addition of 5 mL of concentrated sulphuric
acid to wash down the buildup of black soot in the tube. The digestion process
was continued for another 30 minutes and with the addition of another 5 mL of
concentrated sulphuric acid. The digestion then proceeded until the solution in the
tube turns clear which took approximately 30 minutes. The digester tubes were
then removed from the digester and allow cooling. While the solution was still
hot, 50 mL of distilled water was added into the tube drop by drop to prevent any
crystallization to occur.
Distillation process was performed using a semi-automated Vepodest 10
distillation system. The water tank was filled with distill water and 40% NaOH
solution was filled into NaOH tank. A digester tube containing 50 mL of distilled
water was placed into the distillator for a test run before any samples. Once the
distillator was ready, the digester tube with digested sample was loaded onto the
clamping device with wedge. A conical flask containing 25 mL of 4% boric acid
with pH mix-indicator solution of methyl red and bromocresol green was placed
at the receiving end of the distillator to collect the distillate. Before running the
samples, the setting of 6 minutes, steam level 2 and NaOH level 4 was set and
then the sample was allowed to distill. The distillated was titrated against 0.1 N of
standard HCl. The standardized HCl was filled into a 50 mL burette and the initial
volume of HCl was recorded as V1. The volume used to titrate the distillate until
first sight change into pink color of distillate was recorded as V2. The percentage
of crude protein can be calculated as shown in the following formula:
(V − V1 ) (3)
Percentage of Nitrogen = MW of Nitrogen × 0.08247 MW × 2
W1
Percentage of protein content = Percentage of Nitrogen × 6.25 (4)
where,
MW is Molecular weight
V1 is the initial volume of HCl
V2 is the final volume of HCl
W1 is the weight of the sample
of sulphuric acid and the solution was gently boiled for about 30 minutes.
Subsequently, the sample was filtered through the fritted funnel, the trapped
residue on the frit was rinsed with 50 mL of boiling distilled water before being
collected and transferred into a 250 mL boiling flask. An aliquot of 200 mL
(0.313 M) of sodium hydroxide solution was poured into the boiling flask and the
sample was allowed to be digested for 30 minutes. The contents in the boiling
flask were filtered again through the fritted funnel and rinsed with 50 mL of
boiling distilled water. This was followed by washing the filtered residue with 25
mL of 1.25% of sulphuric acid and twice of boiling distilled water. Finally, the
residue was washed with 25 mL of petroleum ether and was collected into a
crucible before dried at 105°C for 12 hours in an oven. The crucible along with
the dried sample was weighed, W2, and then sent to ashing at 550°C for 3 hours in
a muffle furnace. The sample was cooled and weighed again, W3. The percentage
of crude fiber content can be calculated according to the formula.
W − W3
Percentage of fiber content = 2 × 100 (5)
W
1
where,
W1 is the weight of the defatted fed
W2 is the weight of before ashing
W3 is the weight of after ashing
W −W
Percentage of ash content = 3 2 × 100 (6)
W
1
where,
W1 is the weight of the defatted fed
W2 is the weight of empty crucible
W3 is the weight of sample and crucible after ashing
As evident, lower lipid content was found in all the feeds prior to larvae
ingestions with different feed type (Table 3). Based on the nutrient composition
results, 70.77±0.007% of crude protein was obtained from treated sewage sludge
which indicated the highest composition among the 3 feeds. Whilst, highest
amount of carbohydrate was 68.43±0.05% obtained from fruits waste,
28.10±1.15% from sewage sludge and 19.28±0.12% from palm decanter.
Furthermore, the crude lipid content of the feed (Table 3) and the HIL fed with
different feed (Table 4) indicate remarkable increased in lipid the content found in
HIL biomass. The lipid content found in the feed composition were 0.57±0.47,
1.24±0.06 and 12.92±0.68% from sewage sludge, fruit waste and palm decanter,
respectively. Comparing with the amount of lipid produced by the HIL shown in
Table 2 and the lipid content in the feed, the lowest lipid produced by HIL was
29.85% fed with treated sewage sludge, second highest by palm decanter cake
where the lipid content was 36.51% and the highest lipid obtained by HIL was
44.46% fed with fruit waste.
It is noteworthy that, increase in the lipid accumulation in HIL biomass
indicates that the larvae are able to assimilate and bioconvert the feed
composition into their own biomass. On the other hand, the high protein content
found in sewage sludge did not contribute to the lipid accumulation in HIL
biomass as well as in the larvae growth. This study hypothesized that, low lipid
accumulation by the HIL fed sewage sludge could have been hinder by the
extrapolymeric substances (EPS) formed by the bacteria cell wall to prevent
from digestibility by other microorganisms [14] or other chemical compositions
presence in the sludge that retard the growth of the larvae and thus led to
low lipid storage. Consequently, the nutrient composition contains in the types
of feed, ingested and digested by the larvae strongly affect the overall
lipid accumulation.
4. Conclusion
In summary, the study provides an insight on the effect of different fed on the
larvae’s lipid accumulation and the fatty acid composition. In spite of feeding
with different waste, lauric acid was found to be the highest in HIL. The highest
composition of lauric acid is produced when fed with fruit waste and the lowest is
produced when fed with palm decanter cake. The high lauric acid content found
in HIL could be a potential for antimicrobial or antifungal properties.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to the Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology,
University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia for providing their
laboratory facilities.
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