InnoWIns - Innovation for plastic Waste treatment through the utilisation of an Insect-based technology

Purpose and goal:

InnoWIns specifically focused on the substrate preparation, i.e. physical pre-treatment process, for effective handling of unrecyclable plastic waste streams by an insect-based biorefinery. The main goal of the project being to achieve TRL 4 level in the improved pre-treatment process, to go further to the additional goal - stimulation of stakeholders’ engagement and increasing opportunities for collaboration with them. Both those goals have been successfully achieved during the project.

Expected results and effects:

The approach developed by InnoWIns allowed an overall process improvement for the two studied waste streams. Thus, 89.5% and 107% of pupation increase were obtained for sludge and matrasses, respectively; and 12.1% and 11.6% of mortality decrease, respectively. Those results allowed connections with several potential customers in Sweden and abroad, thus fastening the future realization of an environmentally-sound and commercially-successful facility transforming unrecyclable plastic waste into sustainable goods, i.e. proteins, lipids and biofertilizers.

Approach and implementation: InnoWIns was articulated in 3 WPs:

-Insect process: the selected waste streams have been minced into different particle sizes ranging from 45 to 5 mm and submitted to transformation by insects. Two main parameters were followed during the process: pupation and mortality rates -IPR management and enhancement -communication with different stakeholders about the results of the project.

This structure allowed a holistic approach to the technological challenges, continuous dialogue with waste streams providers, and overall contributed to an improvement of Norbite’s business model.