38 n FOOD AND BEVERAGE September 2024 www.drivesncontrols.com save space – are used for crates on an outer conveyor line, where a plate slides forward and backwards to push each crate along. A skewed roller conveyor is angled to ensure that the crates arrive in the top righthand corner of the first conveyor line, to be placed accurately, ready for feed dosing. Integrated blades ensure that the crate stops in the correct position in the neonate zone. Belt pop-ups after this stage move each crate through 90 degrees to a straight-line conveyor. The belts then drop down to allow the crate to travel on conveyor rollers. If needed, the modular automated installation can be re-programmed to perform other tasks, allowing Entocycle to adapt its breeding and production processes as its technology evolves. Entocycle has recently opened a containerised insect farm for R&D at the University of Leeds, and raised $2.6m (in addition to $5.4m raised last year) to finance further expansion in Europe and beyond. The Leeds facility, funded by UKRI, will support research on insect industry health and safety, integration of energy and bioconversion technologies, and insect welfare. n A video about the project can be seen at https://youtu.be/6-xToe4TSAY The automated handling system for Entocycle’s Centre for Insect Technology had be fitted into the limited space available under railway arches at London Bridge station Robots are helping Danes to breed soldier fly larvae Denmark’s first commercial insect farm is using six robots to help it breed black soldier fly larvae used to produce protein feed – for fish, poultry or pets, for example – as well as insect oil, which can be used as a supplement for animal feeds. The aim is to use the insects to provide a climatefriendly source of protein for the future. Insect production is an example of a sustainable circular economy with minimal impact on the environment and climate. Ingredients based on the fly larvae can be produced responsibly and have much lower CO2 footprints than other sources of animal protein. The Enorm Biofactory, located 50km southwest of Aarhus, is the biggest insect production facility in Northern Europe. It breeds millions of fly larvae which munch their way through food in containers that are constantly being moved, stacked, emptied and filled by the robots. The larvae increase their weight 12,000fold in 12 days. “The larvae of the fly can feed on almost any organic matter,” explains Enorm’s chief operating officer, Jane Lind Sam. “That's why we can feed them with waste products from the Danish food industry that would otherwise be disposed of elsewhere, and turn them into high-quality feed protein for livestock farming.” The heavy containers used to breed the larvae need to be filled, emptied and stacked quickly. Finding the best way to do this was the task of a team at the Danish packaging and palletising specialist, the Sealing System Group, headed by its chief technology officer, Rolf Tange. “In the first stage, the larvae grow in 30-40cm boxes,“ Tange says. After seven days, they are transferred to larger boxes measuring more than 1m x 1m. At this point, robots become an indispensable aid. “There is 50kg of liquid food in there, then 70,000 larvae are tipped on top. Not even the fittest worker could manage that weight.” Six Hygienic Oil robots from Kuka fill a new box every seven seconds – or around 500 per hour – for 20 hours a day. In the remaining four hours, the system is cleaned. These robots use food-compatible lubricants in all of their axes. Their supply cables use foodsafe greases, thus providing H1 lubrication not only in production machines and conveyor systems, but also in the robots. Any incidental food contact is harmless to humans, and the grey surface of the equipment reveals any contamination. The Sealing System team tested the robot and conveyor processes in advance using 3D simulation software for factory planning, developed by the Finnish company, Visual Components, which has been part of the Kuka Group since 2017. Its software was used to simulate the speed and rhythm at which the Enorm robots and conveyor systems would have to move. Enorm is now planning automated systems that could handle 2,000 crates of larvae every hour. Larvae of the black soldier fly are used to produce a sustainable source of protein with a low carbon footprint One of the six hygienic robots that Enorm is using to handle containers at its Danish insect farm
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