[2S04e] 18. Biorefinery and Bioproduction - Part 3

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM JST(9:00 AM - 9:15 AM UTC)

[2BRBP-18] Designing a Circular Insect Biorefinery for Drop-in Aviation and Diesel Fuels

○YU-SHEN ANSON CHENG^1,2, Ali Iqra², Cheng-Hsuan Hsu², Tzung-Han Chou², Shu-Hui Liu², Chi-Wen Lin², Chin-Ye Chen² (1. National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), 2. National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (Taiwan))

Keywords:

insect biorefinery,insect oil,hydrogen-free deoxygenation,sustainable aviation fuel,green diesel,circular economy

Purpose: Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and green diesel are essential for decarbonizing hard-to-abate transport, yet the availability of scalable lipid feedstocks and the dependence on hydrogen-intensive upgrading remain major bottlenecks. This presentation aims to demonstrate how an insect biorefinery can function as a waste-to-lipid platform and how the resulting insect oil can be upgraded to drop-in hydrocarbons using a hydrogen-free route. Method: A modular insect biorefinery is proposed to convert agro-industrial organic surplus materials into insect-derived lipids using black soldier fly and/or mealworm platforms. The system integrates feedstock preprocessing and stabilization, insect cultivation, harvesting and oil recovery, followed by a downstream catalytic upgrading step operated under an inert atmosphere. The upgrading strategy applies hydrogen-free catalytic deoxygenation using Nb2O5 to reduce reliance on external H2 supply chains while targeting hydrocarbon distributions relevant to jet-fuel and diesel applications. Product characterization uses GC-MS and FTIR as primary tools, complemented by cold-property screening to evaluate suitability for fuel-range blending and specification-oriented development. Results: Preliminary results indicate that Nb2O5 enables one-step deoxygenation of fatty feedstocks at approximately 350 C under N2 (about 10 bar), achieving deoxygenation efficiency greater than 85 percent and producing substantial fractions within SAF-range and green-diesel-range carbon distributions. These outcomes support the technical feasibility of coupling insect-derived lipids with hydrogen-free upgrading in a modular configuration suitable for scale-up considerations. Consideration: Key engineering questions for translation include managing feedstock variability and its impact on insect-oil quality, controlling impurities that influence catalyst stability, and establishing catalyst forming, durability and regeneration strategies. In addition, linking oil quality attributes to predictable fuel-range selectivity is critical for reliable operation and for guiding downstream separation or finishing steps if required to meet performance targets such as cold-flow behavior. Conclusion: The work positions insect biorefinery as an integrated pathway from organic surplus materials to drop-in fuels, where hydrogen-free catalytic deoxygenation offers a practical upgrading option with reduced dependence on external hydrogen infrastructure. System-level decision-making will be discussed using TEA and LCA with MRV-oriented KPIs to quantify carbon reduction per ton of processed residues and to identify dominant cost and carbon drivers for deployment under a Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy framework.