Unveiling Environmental Influences on Sustainable Fertilizer Production through Insect Farming

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript deals with organic waste recycling to obtain a valuable fertilizer with high contents of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. The manuscript has scientific validity and significance due to good statistical processing. It seems to be a high-quality paper due to the evidence-based results and discussion. Good academic English should be noted. Minor revision is needed.

I highlighted comments, questions and recommendations according to the manuscript:

Line 15. “fass”. Typo.

Line 92-95. It would be better to clarify what the sensors were used. What the devices was applied to measure N, P, K contents? Please, expand a description of the methods used.

Line 126-127. There is a problem with brackets.

Line 181, 206, 217. Fig. 6. Please, add units of measurement to the plots, especially for N, K, P contents.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments concerning manuscript Sustainability - 2954638

General comments:

The authors conducted a study to investigate the factors influencing the nutrient quality of black soldier fly frass fertilizer. They utilized response surface methodology to analyze physical-chemical factors affecting the fertilizer. They employed a non-linear regression model to examine the relationship between these variables. The subject is interesting, but the manuscript quality is poor and an important revision is required. The manuscript is unsuitable for publication in this Journal under its present form. To help the authors in the eventual revision of the manuscript, some relevant comments are listed below:

-   The novelty should be highlighted in the introduction section.

-   Figures must include names and units on all their axes.

-   The optimal point on the RSM graph should be identified.

Final assessment: Minor Revision is required.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper falls within the scope of the journal and represents a good idea in waste recycling. However, this manuscript is graded as preliminary in its current form. Therefore, the paper should be improved by the following comments:

- Please focus more on adding clear explanations regarding the novelty and motivation of this research in the introduction section.

- Before the last paragraph of the Introduction, please write 3-5 core contributions of this research.

- Please add a paragraph at the end of the Introduction section as the "rest of the paper".

- The literature studies review is short and weak. The authors should cover the knowledge edge in the Introduction with the newly published scientific papers. The motivation and literature on waste recycling should enriched with the following studies:

"Assessment of sustainable waste management alternatives using the extensions of the base criterion method and combined compromise solution based on the fuzzy Z-numbers." Environmental Science and Pollution Research 30.22 (2023): 62121-62136.

"Sustainable resilient recycling partner selection for urban waste management: Consolidating perspectives of decision-makers and experts." Applied Soft Computing 137 (2023): 110120.

- The results and discussion sections are really good.

- The conclusion of this manuscript is poor. The main findings of this research should be discussed more in the conclusion section.

- Also, the limitations of this research should be discussed more in the conclusion section.

-  Finally, please bring and focus on future research directions.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

In this paper, the authors reported the optimal environmental conditions to obtain high-quality organic fertilizer with black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) as a catalyst in the composting process for organic waste recycling and developing insect farming.

The authors used mathematical method (analysis of variance and response surface methodology) to find the optical condition for producing high-quality BSFL frass fertilizer.

The necessary data such as the independent variable (air temperature, moisture content, and air humidity) and dependent variable (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) were monitored in real-time by internet of Things sensors.

They found that an air temperature of 30℃ and 41.5℃, substrate temperature of 32.5℃ and 35℃, moisture content between 70%-80% can be conductive for the production of high-quality BSFL frass fertilizer.

Although the reported results in this paper are advantageous for the tropical region, they will become useful methodology for broader region in the near future.

There are some minor comments as follows.

1.     P.1, line 9-11

Please check the following sentence.

…air humidity and…did not have a significant effect on nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation……, but phosphorous was significant influenced by air humidity.

2.     P.5, line 168-171, Fig 2

Please check the following sentence.

……in Figure 2a……90% (Figure 2b) …….

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Unfortunately, I did not find any changes in the revised manuscript. Also, there are no highlighted sections. Based on the author's responses, I think there is a mistake in the uploading process.

Please check the revised manuscript and highlight all changes.

I will evaluate again after receiving a new revised manuscript.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

In this revised version, all my concerns have been addressed well by the authors. I recommend accepting this version for publishing in this journal.