Ÿnsect

Founded in 2011 by scientists and environmentalists, Ynsect is pioneering a new industry that realizes the full potential of mealworms – putting them at the service of humanity, the planet and the living world at large.

Ynsect focuses on the large-scale cultivation of mealworms and the ingredients they can extract from this smart creature. They use 100% of the animal, but also the rich breeding ground that served during production. The result of this effort is enormous. Up to 40x less CO2 reduction compared to cattle, up to 40x less land thanks to the size of the animal and the fact that vertical farming can be applied and up to 30x less water per kilo of protein compared to a kilo of protein from pig.

Ynsect first came into contact with D&W in 2021. Until then, the company had been able to manage their R&D quite independently, but with the development of two new product applications and the scaling up of these applications from lab to industrial scale, a need arose. to collaborate with a party that had the capabilities to supervise this process. This batch was found in D&W.

René: Ynsect needed a party that on the one hand could deal with the dynamics and complexity of our project, but on the other hand could also take responsibility for what they came up with. We now know very well how our company works, but ultimately we remain a production factory and not a project organization. D&W helped us structure our R&D information and everything we had learned and guided us step by step through the process.

D&W has taken up and developed two important projects from a conceptual engineering phase. New product applications of which little knowledge was available in the market.

René: The pleasant thing about our collaboration was the fact that, especially in the beginning, there was a lot of room for discussion and consultation where both worlds of expertise clearly came together. We are pioneering a new industry, so frequent consultation and good mutual coordination are crucial. Moreover, you want to talk to a party that does not talk to you, but is constructively critical and brings experience and practice. Ultimately, what matters is the quality of the product we are going to produce.

Subsequently, D&W was able to realize the largest and most important production line at the factory in Ermelo for Ynsect.

René: In projects like this, the large multinationals such as GEA or Alfa Laval are often involved. It is interesting for them to work on these types of projects because it gives them access to new industries or applications. However, we have made a very conscious choice not to go along with this. D&W was smaller as a party and was therefore much more agile in dealing with the variability of our project. Did R&D come up with another improvement or something new during the project? Then direct implementation was no problem. Major parties react too slowly and you notice that they work more for their own agenda than they work together. D&W only knew our agenda. All decisions made were decisions in the interest of Ynsect and the project. That worked very well.

Ynsect is proud of the production line that resulted from the project and appreciates the collaboration with D&W.

René: Our project was a large and complex project where good cooperation was essential. There was an immediate good click between D&W and Plan B – the project management agency that helped our internal organization and between D&W and our own employees. The result shows this: a relatively fast process from development to realization, constructive commissioning together with our automation engineer and a production line that many multinationals have to do their best to achieve this quality level. It is not without reason that we still keep in touch with D&W regarding our future plans.