Aquaculture is the fastest-growing sector in animal protein production projected at 100 million tons by 2030. But with the limited availability of land and water, the only viable solution is intensification – to produce more fish per unit of area and water. This shifted the focus towards longevity and sustainability of aquaculture, now driven by innovative, highly sustainable and cost-effective solutions. One such solution, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), are based on the treatment and reuse of water via the application of mechanical filtration, followed by biofiltration, disinfection, and oxygenation. Available RAS technologies suffer from several limiting factors restricting their wide application: (1) Difficulty in meeting desired environmental standards, namely related to inefficient removal of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds; (2) bio-filter limitations, such as long start-up time, temperature dependency, possible amplification of pathogens within the biofilter (3) generation of fish off flavor agents such as MIB & Geosmin generating a muddy taste of the fish causing tremendous lost for the farmer. These factors result in increased production costs due to environmental-related expenses, fish health issues affecting both growth performance and survival rates, and high capital costs particularly apparent in RAS focusing on cold-water fish, which require large bio-filter surface areas.
A new operational approach for RAS, is based on physicochemical water treatment techniques. Within this concept the fish are grown at high TAN concentration and around neutral pH that is calculated to maintain the toxic NH3 concentration lower than a predetermined threshold. The inherently high Cl− concentration in seawater enables efficient electro-generation of Cl2(aq) which consequently oxidizes ammonia directly into innocuous N2(g). The system’s water passes in a semi-batch mode through the water treatment unit and then returns to the fish tanks, supplying disinfected water with zero TAN and off-flavor agents, and most of the acidity required for maintaining the alkalinity mass balance in the RAS. A powered controller with a highly-intuitive graphic UI monitors and controls the water’s pH, temperature, O2, ORP, Cl2 and NH4+ levels for maintaining optimal water quality for the fish. The BioFishency ELX enables real-time data collection and management via an intuitive dashboard through a cloud-based solution. Remote monitoring and operation are facilitated by an easy-to-use mobile app, accessible from any location, at any time, via any mobile device or tablet. Intelligent process adaptation using Machine Learning technologies, are planned for future versions.
The presentation will include a technical description of the Biofishency ELX technology and describe it value proposition to both investors and fish farmers in three major market segments: Off-flavor purging under regular feeding regime, Full grow-out period in RAS, and Zero discharge transportations of live fish in welboats.