Aquaponics and sustainability: The comparison of two different aquaponic techniques using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Aquaponics is generally regarded as a sustainable practice, but its environmental burdens were not yet deeply investigated. In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmental impacts of two hypothetical coupled aquaponics systems (CAPS): Raft System (RAFT) and Media-Filled Beds System (MFBS). Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) were considered as cultivated species in both systems. The Simapro^© software V.8.0 was used for calculation. The comparison between the two virtual systems indicated the floating technique as the less impacting one. Even though energy consumption appears to be higher in the floating system, LCA results were markedly influenced by the extensive use of inert materials in MFSB. In both systems, contribution analyses underlined that the main environmental impacts are related to infrastructures, electricity and fish feed. The LCA analyses carried out in this study highlights that the choice of less impacting materials, and the optimization of management practices, should be taken as priorities in order to reduce environmental impacts of this activity.     

Homeopathic complex increases survival without affecting the performance of Nile tilapia during masculinization

During the masculinization of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, the effect of a homeopathic complex (containing Chamomilla, Quina, and sulphur) was evaluated based on survival, performance, gills and liver integrity, and parasitism. Group fed with basal diet + 17 alpha-methyltestosterone (control) showed low survival (40.02%), while the group that additionally received homeopathy and the group that received sucrose (vehicle) showed 73.7% and 87.7% survival, respectively. The growth performance of the group that received homeopathic and the control group was significantly higher than that of the group that received only sucrose. Still, fish that received the homeopathic complex showed higher branchial and hepatic integrity as compared to the other groups. The homeopathic complex contributes to a greater survival of fish in addition to maintaining satisfactory growth. Furthermore, homeopathy contributes to the improvement in gill and liver integrity of the Nile tilapia larvae.     

Experimental investigation on the transport of different fish species in a jet fish pump

A jet fish pump with a throat of ø60 mm was designed to study its performance in the transport of different fish species and the physiological changes in fish thereafter. Experiments were conducted to investigate the fish transport rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish when transporting Carassius auratus, commonly known as the Chinese goldfish, Megalobrama amblycephala, or Wuchang bream, and Ctenopharyngodon idella, the grass carp. Fish were examined for external injuries as well as for several important enzymes and hormones which are indicators of tissue injury and stress. The results showed that the transport rate for all three species of fish rose dramatically with an increase in the primary stream rate. In this experiment, the transport rates of C. auratus, M. amblycephala and C. idella reached 2357 ± 37.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, 2888 ± 41.6 kg ∙ h⁻¹, and 2060 ± 40.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, respectively. However, both injury rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish increased no matter whether the primary stream rate was too low or too high. Considering both transport rate and injury rate, the mean primary stream rate of 80 m³ ∙ h⁻¹ was determined to be the optimal operating condition in this experiment. Fish were stressed and most likely some of their organs were damaged. However, most physiological indexes almost fully recovered after several hours.     

Engineered-airlift pumps for aquaculture applications using multiphase flow analysis

Currently, very few aquaculture operations are employing airlift pump technology for water recirculation, aeration, and waste removal. This is likely due to the poor design and lower efficiency of traditional airlift design, the limited amount of research effort that has been invested in improving performance capabilities of air lift pumps and the general lack of awareness of the industry about the inherent advantages of airlift systems. A new efficient airlift pump is hydrodynamically designed by incorporating the Volume of Fluid (VOF) multi-phase model along with the K-ε turbulence model utilizing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools. The pump is designed to offer a substantial reduction in total energy usage as well as an improved quality of the culture products in order to make it attractive to aquaculture industry. In this study, both numerical and experimental investigations were carried out for airlift systems operating under two different submergence ratios of 50% and 90% in a lab setting using 2.54 cm diameter pumps. Also, the performance of a large-scale pumps of 10.16 cm diameters were also tested in an aquaculture raceway to determine its effect on the operation. The numerical results were found to be in agreement with the experiments within ±20% which is considered very reasonable for multiphase flow analysis. The present study was found to present a great tool for modelling the airlift pump performance, and potentially proposing new designs.     

Typical hydrodynamic models for aquaculture nets: A comparative study under pure current conditions

The net is regarded as the most critical component in marine aquaculture facilities as it is the only barrier which protects the environment from fish escapes. Accurate predictions of the net cage deformation and drag force on the nets are needed, both for ensuring fish welfare and for dimensioning of the mooring system. Thus, an appropriate hydrodynamic model is essential. In practice, two types of hydrodynamic force models, i.e., the Morison type and the Screen type, are commonly used to calculate the hydrodynamic forces on nets. Application of the models depends on the underlying structural model and the availability of data. A systematic review of hydrodynamic models is therefore undertaken to compare the models and various parameterisations, in aid of model selection during the design. In this study, eleven commonly used hydrodynamic models, i.e., five Morison models and six Screen models, are reviewed comprehensively, and implemented into a general finite element (FE) solver for dynamic simulations. Sensitivity studies on different current velocities, inflow angles and solidities of the nets are carried out. Moreover, different wake effects are also considered in numerical simulations. The numerical results from different models are compared against existing experimental data under pure current conditions. Suggestions for selection of suitable hydrodynamic models are provided, based on the model comparison.     

Process performance of anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and aquaculture sludge

The mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion (AcD) performances of waste activated sludge (WAS) and aquaculture sludge (AS) were studied. Mixtures of different compositions (0, 30, 50, 70 and 100 % of AS on the volume basis) were used as AcD substrates and tested via biochemical methane potential assay. The results showed that CH₄ production increased with AS/WAS ratio increment, and AS alone used as the substrate showed the maximum CH₄ yield, which was 8% higher than that achieved using WAS alone as the substrate. The CH₄ yield values were well fitted with the modified Gompertz model. The maximum methane potential (P₀) and maximum methane production rate (R₀) increased from 66.8 mL CH₄/g VS_fed to 70.9 mL CH₄/g VS_fed and from 4.40 mL CH₄/g VS_fed·d to 5.59 mL CH₄/g VS_fed·d, respectively, as the AS/WAS ratio increased from 0% to 100 %. In addition, lower levels of free ammonia and non-biodegradable organic matter contributed to the CH₄ production increasing with AS/WAS ratio increased.     

Simulation of future dissolved oxygen distribution in pond culture based on sliding window-temporal convolutional network and trend surface analysis

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is a key ecological factor to measure the quality of water in the aquaculture. As the pond water body is affected by the breeding environment, the spatial distribution of DO shows a certain law in the entire pond. Therefore, to simulate the distribution of DO in aquaculture waters and grasp the temporal and spatial variation of DO is the key to achieving precise regulation of DO. For this purpose, this paper proposed a method for simulating the temporal and spatial distribution of DO in pond culture based on a sliding window-temporal convolutional network together with trend surface analysis (SW-TCN-TSA). This paper first utilized SW to construct DO data sets with different prediction durations, and then used the improved TCN model to realize one-dimensional time series prediction for DO at single monitoring point. Based on the prediction results of DO, a TSA method was performed on the predicted values of DO at the extreme moments of all discrete monitoring points, so as to realize the simulation of the temporal and spatial distribution of DO in the pond. Experimental results show that the SW-TCN model has better prediction performance for one-dimensional time series prediction of DO. Compared with traditional deep networks, such as CNN, GRU, LSTM, CNN-GRU and CNN-LSTM, the values of evaluation indicators (MSE, MAE and RMSE) have been greatly improved. In the process of trend surface fitting, all fitting R² of DO at different water depths are higher than 0.9, indicating that the TSA can accurately reflect the temporal and spatial distribution of DO. This method can provide a basis for the prediction and early warning of DO in the three-dimensional space of the pond and has high practicability in aquaculture.     

Monitoring shrimp growth with control charts in aquaculture

This work proposes a method for the statistical monitoring of the weekly weight of shrimp in a fish farm. The design of control charts for shrimp growth presents several challenges, the main ones being the presence of trend and autocorrelation. Several control charts are proposed, the most efficient being a chart based on the residuals of a second order autoregression whose parameters vary with the week. A control chart with less computational complexity is also provided. It is simply based on growth rates and works well at detecting negative weight changes. Real data from a large shrimp farm has been used for both the design and the evaluation.     

水产养殖专业英语课程的教学改革与实践

水产养殖专业英语是为了适应社会经济发展而为学生开设的一门考查课,其目的是让学生掌握一种获取更多资料和信息的语言工具.然而,我国至今没有一本适合普通高职院校学生的专业英语教材.根据自身教学实践,本文从教学内容选择及教学手段改革两方面进行了细致深入的阐述,希望对我国水产养殖专业英语或其他学科专业英语的课程教学改革有所启发.     

Performance evaluation of venturi aeration system

The venturi aeration is an effective practice to increase the dissolved oxygen accessibility in the water bodies. This study aims to optimize the various geometrical parameters of the venturi aeration system. A non-dimensional technique was applied to find the optimum performance of various geometric parameters i.e. throat lengths (t_l), number of air holes (N), and converging and diverging angles (α and β). These experiments have been carried out using 1124 L capacity of tank having dimensions of 105 cm long, 105 cm wide and 102 cm deep. The experiments were conducted at a constant flow velocity of water (1.096 m/s) with varying throat length (t_l = 20–100 mm keeping 20 mm as interval between two consecutive length), number of air holes (N = 1–17 at an equal hole to hole distance of 5 mm between them), and converging and diverging angles (α and β = 10°, 15°, 20° and 25°). Multiple non-linear regression equations were also developed from the linear relation with the dependent variable (Non-dimensional form of standard aeration efficiency, NDSAE) and independent variables (t_l and N). With the geometrically optimized venturi aerator the optimum performance was found for t_l =100 mm, N = 17, and α and β = 15°. The maximum value of standard oxygen transfer rate (SOTR) and standard aeration efficiency (SAE) obtained was 0.0216 kgO₂/h and 0.611 kgO₂/kWh respectively. From the non-dimensional study, it was found that the NDSAE is the function Reynolds number (Re) and Froude number (Fr). The simulation equations were developed on the basis of Re and Fr for NDSAE, and subjected to 7.378 × 10⁻⁶ < Re < 3.689 × 10^-5 and 0.163 < Fr < 0.817, respectively.