Bringing Low Carbon Protein Feedstock production to Lincolnshire - Feasibility Study for the UK's first commercial scale Insect Farm

This project is the feasibility study for building the UK's first commercial scale Insect Farm in Eastern England - in Lincolnshire. the feasibility will evaluate:

Fairman Knight's requirements for Insect Technology; the feedstock mix to establish a General Mass Balance for the Plant; the basic requirements for the engineering of the plant and to build the main assumptions for the Business Case evaluating the viability of our Plant for future.

Fairman Knight partnered with Entocyle UK Ltd - leading subcontractor backed technically by Buehler, Switzerland. Buehler automate processing machinery and capture image analysis for feed grade Black Soldier Fly (BSF) manufacture. BSF will be used in Lincolnshire Broiler Farm feedstocks and Lincolnshire Aquaculture inland fish farms in Cleethorpes Lincolnshire and FloGro in Spalding Lincolnshire.

These are existing relationships and drive a local circular economy. As a Family business we offer sustainable employment for 13 family offspring, we will recruit heavily from East of England ex UK military forces community. Our founder is ex UK Military.

Partnering with Nottingham Trent University, National poultry feed research centre and University of Lincoln Holbeach Campus and the National Centre for Food Manufacturing mapping the food waste stocks in Lincolnshire to be collected and used in BSF production.

The project aims moves rapidly towards building our first unit to deliver a circular economy in regards to BSF production, food waste that is taken in and not sent to landfill, and production of Frass - a peat alternative fertilizer in horticulture. The site is powered by solar and one small scale wind turbine, water is extensively harvested from rainwater.

Ammonia recovery will be trialed inside the Insect Farm in partnership with the University of Valladolid, Spain using semi-permeable membrane acid solution, yielding Ammonium Chloride fertilizer byproduct. The site will be surrounded by Norwegian Spruce tree break for maximum Ammonia absorption.

The technology used inside the BSF production facility uses a unique high speed camera system to ensure highly accurate numbers of BSF eggs are collected from a breeding stock and harvested in individual pallets controlled by robotics technology. Bespoke ventilation (recovering heat) is deployed to ensure optimum growing conditions and at 15 days larvae can be harvested for onward use in Lincolnshire Broiler feedstocks as a low carbon and stable local supply chain alternative feed to soyameal.

The Farm alone produces annually 800 tonnes of BSF and Frass and a staggering 8000 tonnes of CO2 offsets.