Global research trends and compositional valorisation of black soldier fly biomass: a bibliometric and meta-analysis

Abstract The fast-growing BSF research has led to a fragmented body of literature regarding waste bioconversion, biomass generation and product valorisation. This review combines bibliometric and meta-analytical approaches to assess the global research trends in the valorisation of BSF-derived biomass and to quantitatively summarise its compositional valorisation potential. A bibliometric analysis of 1308 articles in Scopus and Web of Science showed a remarkable increase in multidisciplinary research with China, Italy and the USA as main contributors. The research emphasis has moved from waste minimisation and animal feed applications to value-added chemical production and integrated biorefinery systems. The meta-analysis demonstrated that BSF biomass was rich in crude protein, crude lipid, essential amino acids, non-essential amino acids, saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids, chitin and chitosan, and is applicable as feed ingredients, biomaterials and industrial bioproducts. However, despite this high compositional potential, extremely high between-study heterogeneity was consistently observed for all parameters, suggesting that BSF biomass composition is strongly determined by substrate type, developmental stage, processing conditions and extraction methodologies. Moderator analyses revealed that the main drivers of compositional variability were insect developmental stage, feed type and extraction method. These results suggest that BSF-derived products should be regarded as context-dependent rather than compositionally fixed, challenging standardisation, product consistency and industrial implementation. Future research should focus on the integration of upstream rearing optimisation and downstream biorefinery processes, harmonised reporting standards, techno-economic evaluation, life cycle assessment, safety assessment and regulatory considerations to facilitate the large-scale commercialisation of BSF-based biorefineries.