New Solution for Aquaculture Wastewater Treatment
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing
sectors of agriculture in the world today. However, farmers who wish to
capitalize on this momentum face regulatory hurdles when dealing with fish
waste. But new studies suggest that a simple, organic system can easy
aquaculture wastewater effectively and inexpensively.
Researchers constructed bioreactors lengthy packing containers filled with wood chips to treat wastewater from a completely operational recirculating aquaculture system. Water from the fish tank enters the bioreactor at
one quit, flows through the wood chips, and exits through a
pipe at the other give
up. Alongside the manner, solids
settle out and bacteria housed within
the timber chips get rid of nitrogen,
a regulated pollutant.
The bioreactors that
people use are for taking nitrogen out of tile drainage. Wastewater from a fish
farm is a lot gunkier. It looks brown and can be smelly. Researchers wanted to
see if they could get a bioreactor to take the nitrogen out of that kind of
water without the bioreactor clogging up with solids.
The team set up four identical bioreactors, varying only in
retention time. Retention time varied from 12 to 55 hours in the four
bioreactors. If one is trying to treat a lot of water, they want a lower
retention time so they can keep it moving through. But the more time you give
those bacteria to take the nitrogen out, the more effective they are.
Researchers were trying to find a balance between moving water through quickly
and making sure it's staying in there long enough to get treated properly.
At high flow rates, more solids were entering the system,
settling out, clogging the spaces between wood chips, and impeding flow. The
researchers found that the optimal retention time to both treat the water and
avoid immediate clogging was 24 hours.
Waste in the water offered
every other difficulty. At high flow, greater solids were getting into the
machine, settling out; clogging the areas between wood chips, and impeding go
with the flow. The researchers observed that the ultimate retention time to
each deal with the water and keep away from on the spot clogging changed into
24 hours.
The bioreactors worked as a filter for the solids and took
nitrates out. But for systems that need to move a lot of water in a short
amount of time, an additional micro-screen filter to settle some of the solids
out before they enter and clog up the bioreactor was recommended.
In the U.S. people import more than 80% of the seafood mostly
from Southeast Asia and China. If we want to increase our food security,
especially around this great source of protein, we should raise more fish
domestically.
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