IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Since Sweden joined the EU in 1995, importing food became easier and cheaper, leading to certain parts of thecountry, such as Norrbotten, becoming highly dependent on imports. This dependency, along with the inherentenvironmental impact of imports, could be significantly reduced by local farming. The environmental emissionsoriginating from animal farming could be lowered even further by substituting the highly polluting soybean feedwith, e.g., insect feed.

This study examines the farming of mealworms, utilizing excess heat from a data center,part of a growing industry in Norrbotten county, as a means of alternative feedstock for animal production and acase study for industrial symbiosis. This industrial symbiosis project is in line with the EU’s incentive to use othersources of protein and thus lower the EU’s reliance on the import of foreign protein. Three different feedingapproaches are tested, in a room heated with data center excess heat of 30 ◦C and at room temperature of about20 ◦C. After the adult mealworms were harvested, a sample was taken to analyze their nutritional values. Theresults show that protein, lipid, and fiber content is 19,1 g, 12,6 g, and 2,7 g per 100 g, respectively. All aminoacids except tryptophan were detected. This project concludes that it is possible to reach full-grown mealwormsin about 8 weeks, which is about half the time stated in the literature.