StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 73 LocustHarvester  is an animal feed producer which harvests naturally occurring locusts by tracking the breakout of locust plagues (invasions) around the world. Once it has identified an outbreak, the company captures locust in their billions using specialised equipment of traps, nets and chemical attractants. LocustHarvester turns thousands of tonnes of ground dried locusts into animal feed annually. The company's activity also alleviates the environmental pressure on locust-stricken agricultural regions. Locust meal is used in aquaculture and in pig farms, as dried locust meal contains 130 to 280 grams of protein per kilogram. The copper found in locust blood (insect blood contains copper, while mammalian blood contains iron) seems to enhance fat to protein conversion when fed to pigs, recent research shows . CEO QUOTE "We turn a pest into gold dust. Well, into protein dust, to be precise. We help the world get rid of locust and we make excellent...

StartupRealities No 20 RegenerateSeafood Limited is an aquaculture company that farms seafood in an ethical and sustainable way: by harvesting octopus arms and stone crab claws without killing the animals. The octopus and the crab can regenerate missing limbs in the wild in an evolutionary adaptation of self-defence known as autotomy  (which is commonly seen on land with lizards detaching their tail). SCIENCE The company has selectively bred octopus and crab specimens that survive the limb separation without suffering any other negative effects and that can regrow missing limbs multiple times. The harvesting process is done only under anaesthesia. CEO QUOTE "The octopus and the crab are like the apple tree and the orange tree. We pick the apples and oranges and the trees grow them again the following year," company founder and CEO Regis Seaman said in an interview. "If all meat and fish could be produced in such a sustainable way, people would never again need to...

StartupRealities No 6 DesertPlantations Limited is an international startup investing in desert land in coastal areas in northern Chile, Namibia and Western Australia and converting the acquired coastal land into fruit and nut plantations and vineyards. The coastal farms are irrigated with desalinated ocean water using inexpensive technology developed by MIT, which does not require any additional energy input for desalination. Rafts of these passive solar-powered desalination systems are floated on the surface of the sea near the shore. The solar rafts produce 6 litres of freshwater per square metre per day. Underwater pipes installed on the seabed connect the rafts and drain the distilled freshwater into storage tanks on land. Drip irrigation systems on the farms are turned on only during the night to minimise water loss. --- AGRICULTURE The output of the desert farms peaks in December-March during the southern hemisphere summer (northern hemisphere winter). The farms supply or...

StartupRealities No 4 DamSkite Limited is a solar panel producer which has developed printable water-floating perovskite-based solar panels for installation on the surface of freshwater reservoirs. This technology is particularly useful for application at reservoirs in tropical desert areas, e.g. Lake Nasser in Egypt / Sudan. Installing perovskite panels on the surface of Lake Nasser reduces evaporation while also generating electricity. DamSkite panels can be installed on the surface of any oasis lake or marsh to minimise water loss through evaporation. SeaSkite Limited is a sister company of DamSkite specialising in installing solar panels on the sea surface. This is particularly useful in aquaculture as fish farms (e.g. salmon farms) need to provide shade for fish and breed them in almost complete darkness to minimise aggression among fish. --- Background information: Advanced companies developing perovskite solar cells include: 1. Saule Technologies (printable perovskites)...