Silvia Arnone, ENEA

ENEA National Agency for New Technologies, energy and sustainable economic development

Insects and larvae to reduce volume and FORSU microbial load

They will be the results of an experiment conducted in the laboratory are exposed aimed at characterizing a process of bioconversion of sludge purification of urban waste water mediated by the scavenger dipteran H.. illucens. The tests conducted in batches included analysis of substrates and larvae in pre and post conversion, setting up a bioassay with two theses (substrates consisting of al 75 and al 50 % mixed with a specific artificial diet for the insect). It was wanted evaluate the efficiency of bioconversion in terms of reducing the initial substrate, decrease of the loads of pathogenic bacteria e the concentration of heavy metals, as well as the production of insect biomass.
The experimentation was carried out at the Biomass Laboratory e Biotechnologies for ENEA Energy, Casaccia Research Center (Roma) in collaboration with researchers from the Reggio Emilia office of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute for Lombardy and Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) and the ENEA Research Center in Frascati.