April 2020

32 n FOOD AND BEVERAGE April 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com Welsh VSDs help to convert fly larvae into food A French start-up called Entofood has teamed up with Veolia Bioconversion to establish a plant in Malaysia that specialises in breeding the larvae from the black soldier fly. The flies are fed on food and agricultural waste before producing the larvae, which are converted into protein for use in the aquaculture (fish farming) and agriculture industries. Around 1kg of eggs from the flies produces about 6 tonnes of protein in 10 days, that can be used by fish farms, poultry and pig producers, among others. It is estimated that 10% of the global market for protein could come from insects by 2040. The prospects are promising. Aquaculture provides half of the fish consumed worldwide. The bioconversion process means that farmed fish do not need to be fed on other fish, or on protein grown to the detriment of food crops or forests. Entofood and Veolia say that their partnership“could make the difference in a world where the issues of food safety, self-sufficiency and greenhouse gas reduction are critical.” They have set up a facility 30km from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to breed the larvae. The site is expected to produce about one billion fly eggs every day. It uses large numbers of ventilation fans to maintain a regulated environment in which the flies feed on the waste before laying their eggs. The original drives installed by the fan manufacturers did not match the motor currents, causing frequent tripping. This, in turn, resulted in fluctuations in the environment, affecting the efficiency of production and limiting the site’s ability to increase production. The resulting downtime and need for maintenance were also causing additional costs. It was therefore decided to replace the drives with 58 new IP66-protected 4kW models with 9.5A outputs that matched the fan motor currents. The Size 2 Optidrive E3 VSDs from the Welsh drives-maker Invertek, were supplied and installed by Invertek Drives Malaysia and a local contractor, DSC Engineering. According to Khairul Azhari, manager of Invertek Drives Malaysia, the output current of the new drives“easily matched the fan motors, preventing the tripping and downtime. It also provided greater control of the fan speed, ensuring improved efficiency and a reduction in energy costs”. The drives’IP66 protection means that they can cope with the harsh environment of the facility, which not only involves washdowns, but also waste products and the flies themselves. Invertek’s Optistick Smart device, which incorporates NFC and Bluetooth technologies, was used with a mobile app to commission and to duplicate parameters on the 58 drives. “Using this technology made the commissioning task and time much easier and faster,”Azhari reports. The growing market for animal and fish food protein is expected to lead to an increasing demand for larvae-breeding facilities similar to the one in Malaysia. This will create a new market for VSDs to control the fans and other equipment needed to regulate their environments. n A pioneering plant in Malaysia that breeds fly larvae to convert organic waste into food for fishes and farm animals, is using VSDs made in Wales to regulate its environment. Bioconversion technologies of this type are expected to generate a new market for drives and other industrial equipment. The Malaysian larvae-breeding facility is part of circular process the converts food waste into protein that can be fed to fishes and farm animals (image: Veolia) The IP66-protected VSDs at the larvae farm have to resist some unusual hazards