Technical and economic analysis of hatchery residue valorisation via fermentation and black soldier fly larvae bioconversion in Quebec
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract In response to the challenges associated with conventional management of hatchery residue in Quebec, the technical and economic feasibility of an alternative valorisation system coupling initial fermentation and subsequent black soldier fly larvae bioconversion was evaluated. This study aimed to propose a viable implementation strategy and determine the break-even sales prices of larvae and frass to ensure profitability. A total of 32 production scenarios were compared using an economic prediction tool accounting for geographical and system-specific factors. These scenarios included centralised and decentralised models at scales ranging from 10 to 110 tonnes of residues treated per week (tpw), as well as different reproduction strategies (in-house colony vs external neonate sourcing) and sales approaches (bulk vs retail). Capital and operational costs, along with potential revenues, were estimated for each scenario over 4 years, considering a production start at 30% of design capacity and subsequent ramp-up of 30% per year. Results indicate that a large-scale centralised model with an in-house black soldier fly colony and retail sales is the most profitable one. However, decentralised models could also benefit hatcheries processing at least 15 tpw of residues by reducing fees associated with conventional thermal rendering services. Beyond the economic aspects, challenges related to the supply of skilled labour, social acceptability, regulatory constraints, and market competition for the supply of residues and the marketing of insect products are discussed to ensure the feasibility of implementing the process in Quebec.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".