Aquaponics Food Factory Feasibility Study

Aquaponics Global Ltd.
Towards a Feasibility Study for an Aquaponic Food
Factory.
8/28/2013 1© Aquaponics Global Ltd., London, England.

Crop families that can be grown
 Compositae (lettuce, endive).
 Cruciferae or cole family (broccoli, cabbage,cauliflower, brussels sprouts, pak
choi and other Oriental broad leafed vegetables, mustard and oilseed mustard,
turnips, radish).
 Cucurbits – cucumber family (cucumber,zucchini,squash,pumpkin,melon
and their relatives such as the kiwano which comes from the Namibian
desert, likes heat and is very fashionable).
 Lamiaceae (mint,all the many varieties of basil,lavender,many varieties of
thyme,oregano).
 Chenopodiacieae (spinach, beets, chard, amaranth, quinoa (the latter two
are pseudograins which can be grown like spinach, at high density and very
high yields per acre. Need little or no further processing to be edible. Now very
fashionable.).
 Solonaceae – deadly nightshade family (tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato,
tomatillo, Cape gooseberry, chillies).
 Liliaceae – lily family (onions, leeks, garlic, chives).
 Gramineae – (sweet corn, tortilla flour and oilseed corn).
 Leguminosae – leguminous plants (beans, peas, soybeans, fava beans, sugar
peas, mangetout peas, etc).
 Also cotton and linen can be grown, and okra. Also culinary herbs. Basil in
some markets can bring in very high profits per square meter.
 The sky’s the limit, really. Of course there are plants that do not like having
their roots in water all the time, but these can be grown in a modified growing
media aquaponics system.
8/28/2013 2© Aquaponics Global Ltd., London, England.

You can rear:
 Tilapia (oreochromis species, of African origin). Now getting
very fashionable in the US.
 Trout, brown and rainbow trout. Has to be grown less
intensively at less fish per gallon, in larger tanks than tilapia,
but waste water still very effective at growing the above crops.
 Perch varieties, similar to trout. Various varieties worldwide.
 Murray cod. This is a giant freshwater cod from Australia.
 Sleepy cod. Another freshwater cod from Australia.
 Barramundi. A large gourmet fish from Australia.
 Yabbies (Australian blue crayfish).
 Malaysian giant prawns (under the floating rafts).

You may need a licence for tilapia fish in some states.
These species are not invasive if they are grown in special
tanks in locations far away from running water such as
rivers, ponds and lakes. Dead within 5 minutes of escaping
the tank. Unlike crustaceans such as crabs, which can
survive long periods out of water.
Do due diligence about local fish possession regulations
before planning any aquaponics installation. Regulations
can be very strict and require you to change your plans.

Waste Water Management
 The waste water from the tanks
is recycled through the
hydroponic plant troughs and
filtration mechanisms. No
untreated effluent from the fish
ever reaches the water table or
watershed.
 All fish byproducts are
composted and re-used or sold
as organic manure after a
lengthy composting and water
reclamation process.
 Waste water is recycled through
the plants, which clean it, by
using the dissolved nitrates as
fertilizer, and return it to the fish
for re-use.
NO

Not Conventional Aquaculture
 THIS IS A FOOD
FACTORY.
 THIS IS NOT
CONVENTIONAL
TILAPIA OR OTHER
AQUACULTURE.
 IT DOES NOT RELEASE
UNTREATED EFFLUENT
TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
 ALL WASTES ARE RE-
CYCLED OR REUSABLE
AFTER COMPOSTING.

Water Usage.
 This method of producing
food uses 10%-1.5% of the
water normally used for
food production. This
percentage is used to top
up the system and for
flushing fish solid wastes
into holding ponds for
dewatering and
composting. The rest is
constantly recycled.

This method of producing food can grow up to 4
times more food per acre than any other food
production method known.
It requires around 10% of the equivalent space used by
conventional farming to grow a comparable volume of
food for the space under cultivation.

Energy Required.
Per ⅛ acre/0.05 ha:
1 x ½ horsepower pump
1 x 1 ½ horsepower regenerating air blower.
1 x 1 horsepower regenerating air blower.
This equals 3 horsepower for one 500 square meter/⅛
acre aquaponics system unit.
That is 18 horsepower constantly 24/7 for a six unit farm.
That equals 13.24 kilowatts constantly needed AT LEAST.

Does Not Include
 This does not include the power needed for smaller pumps and air
blowers for the breeding system, light and running power for
refrigerators, freezers, other water pumps, the depuration tanks and
their systems, the kitchens, the offices, etc.
 Using the heat from composting to heat a greenhouse when heating is
needed, and alternative energy supply methods such as wind and solar
power for electricity generation, you can reduce the energy needed for
this food production method to well below 30% of what is normally
used for conventional food production. In many cases only 17% of the
energy usually needed is used. These figures depend on the climate you
are in to a large extent and also how well your farm is managed.
 Heat exchangers also work well in the desert for heating and cooling
spaces, and for parasitic energy harvesting from inhabited heated or
cooled buildings and factories near or around your aquaponics systems.
 You may need to heat or cool greenhouses and water tanks. It all
depends on the climate and what you are rearing or growing.

Nutrients Required For Plant Growth.
Macronutrients Micronutrients
 C Carbon*
 - O Oxygen*
 - H Hydrogen*
 - N Nitrogen
 - K Potassium**
 - Ca Calcium**
 - Mg Magnesium
 - P Phosphorus
 - S Sulphur- Cl Chlorine
 - Fe Iron**
 - Mn Manganese
 - B Boron
 - Zn Zinc
 - Cu Copper
 - Mo Molybdenum
 Supplied by CO2 and H2O
 ** Must be supplemented by base addition
(tiny quantities at micrograms per litre as
and when needed).

Seedling Production – Required:
 Shade house and or greenhouse
in the tropics and deserts.
 Greenhouse benches.
 Seedling flats.
 E-Z seeder.
 Watering and fertilizer injection
system.
 Soilless growing media and
media mixing.
 Labor.
 Scheduling.
 Good management.

Seedling Production – Required:
 Greenhouse or shade house: protected
area in the warehouse.
 Keep it clean: metal tables, floor with
drain, weed barrier.
 Dirt and dead material harbor insects
and disease.
 Wash your hands before and after work.
 Use a bleach tray for your shoes before
entering the propagation area
 Only biologically safe integrated pest
control can be used, no chemical
insecticides, not even ‘organic’ ones.
 Institute a pest patrol.
 Successful plant propagation is a
valuable skill that requires training and
experience.

Raft Aquaponics – Required Per ⅛ Acre:
 Shallow raceways 100
feet long with LDPE or
other tough food grade
plastic liner.
 Fish safe silicon for
joining liner sections.
 6 raceways, 30.5 m x 1.3m
x 0.4m
 100 ft x 4 ft x 16 inches.

Water volume of the hydroponic raft systems per ⅛
acre aquaponics system:
 68m2/
 +/-18,000 gallons.
 3 hour liquid retention time.
This is very important and is
why you need a pump with an
adjustable flow rate for the
entire system. Liquid retention
time in the hydroponic raceways
= plant nitrate uptake time. If
this is not correct the plants will
not grow at the correct rate and
the water will not be purified of
nitrates sufficiently. You may
also get problems with dissolved
oxygen levels and other water
parameters.

Topping Up The System
Water has to be topped up at +/- 10% of volume over
time to replace that lost by evaporation and transpiration,
and flushing of system to remove solids buildup in the
solids removal tanks. This is dependent on a lot of factors
such as temperature, fish feeding rates, leakage, accidents,
and good water management practices generally.
This is the biggest factor to consider when estimating how
much water is needed overall to run the facility, apart from
water needed to process food (cleaning fish, vegetables,
catering, washing, etc.) The exact amount of water loss
varies depending on temperature, plants and fish species
grown, system design, etc., but can be as little as 1.5%.
Good management is crucial here. Water usage should be
metered and logged and strictly rationed as appropriate.

Water Quality Vital
 Water needs to be of high quality
and free of contaminants.
 Fish are very sensitive and DIE if
exposed to contaminants, including
excess minerals, excess nitrites,
soap, pesticides including 'organic'
pesticides, oils, etc.
 With water from an artesian well,
often reverse osmosis filtration is
needed before it can be added to a
hydroponic system. This is because
a lot of groundwater from fossil
water supplies is heavily
mineralized. Water testing before
constructing your aquaponics
systems will tell you what you will
need to do to ensure water quality is
optimal.

72 Rafts Required
Per ⅛ Acre:
2.4m x 1.2m x 3.8cm.
8 ft x 4 ft x 1.5 inches.
Closed cell painted polystyrene.

Land area needed per hydroponic raceway:
 0.056 ha, or 0.14 acre.
Leave 4 feet between
raceways lengthwise for
access.
 Also needed for ⅛ acre of
raceways for hydroponic
element of the system:
 1 horsepower
regenerative blower for
aeration and accessories.

FISH TANKS, SOLIDS REMOVAL AND DEGASSING.
 There are 4 fish rearing
tanks and a solids and
gas removal tank system
(degassing tank) for
every ⅛ acre. A degassing
tank removes excess CO2
and HSO2 from the
water before it enters
the hydroponic
raceways.
Degassing tank in front of sump.

Rearing tanks:
 Diameter: 10ft,
 Height, 4 ft,
 Water volume, 2,060
gallons.

Clarifiers:
 Diameter: 6ft,
 Height of cylinder: 4 ft,
 Depth of Cone: 3.5ft.
 Slope: 45 degrees.

Water volume of clarifiers:
 1,000 gallons each.
 There are 2 clarifiers per
aquaponics system.

Filter and degassing tanks:
 Length: 6 ft,
 Width: 2.5 ft,
 Depth: 2 ft.

Water volume filter and degassing tanks:
 185 gallons each.
 There are 4 filter and 1
degassing tank per ⅛ acre
system.
 The filter tanks contain a lot
of plastic orchard netting as a
home for billons of nitrifying
bacteria. The water in an
aquaponics system cannot be
chlorinated or chloramined
(tap water) or it kills these
bacteria and the whole
system stops working
immediately. Chlorinated
water also kills your fish.

Sump:
 Diameter: 4ft, Height: 3ft.
 Water volume: 160
gallons.
 Base addition tank for
adding trace minerals:
Diameter: 2ft, Height: 3 ft,
 Water volume: 50 gallons.
 Flow rate: 100 gallons per
minute.

Pump:
 ½ horsepower for the
whole system.
 Under the sump.

Blowers:
 1 ½ horsepower to aerate
the fish.
 1 horsepower to aerate
the plants.
 High levels of dissolved
oxygen are essential in
intensive aquaculture or
your fish and plants will
die.

Total system water volume
 29,375 gallons for each
1/8 acre self-contained
unit.

Risk Management:
The units have to be self contained for damage
limitation, to prevent disease and disaster spreading
over a bigger system and wiping everything out. Better
to have a lot of smaller units that are self-contained.
You then lose only a few tons of fish and vegetables
and not the whole lot at one time.

Large Scale Water Volume
 Over say 40 acres, that is (29,375 x 8 x
40=9,400,000 gallons not including
the volume of water in the fish
breeding system, water for
propagation and water for food
processing after harvest and also
hygiene use for your workers,
cleaning tanks, etc.. You would need
to replace, at a 1. 5% a day water loss
rate, 141,000 gallons a day for that
number of systems (320 self-
contained systems, growing different
kinds of fish, fruit and vegetables at
different rates on different
schedules, or just tilapia and high
value crops on a simple staggered
harvesting schedule across all of the
systems.)
 Most of that water lost can be
retrieved by dewatering fish solids
removed , and used for irrigation of
soil crops.

Computer Surveillance
 You would definitely need to
computerize this with sensors at
least to some extent, with 24/7
human oversight.
 You cannot rely entirely on
automatic sensors because they
break.
 You have less than 30 minutes to
rectify a nitrite spike in your system
due to overfeeding, clogging or
other factors, or all your fish will die.
This usually happens on weekends
or at four in the morning. Shift work
is the only way to ensure a
technician is always on duty to
address emergencies as they arise.
Living on the farm is essential.

Start Small, Build Up In Stages.
 What I suggest is that you
start with six initial
systems and build up your
farm in stages. It all depends
on how much water your
artesian well yields per day as
to what you can initially do
and the volume of systems
you can initially build.
 When you have income
coming in from those
systems, you can expand
and sink another well if
necessary to supplement
water volume.

Use Dehumidifiers
By installing dehumidifiers in your greenhouse, you
can scavenge a lot of the evaporated water back
out of the air volume of the warehouse and return it to
the tanks. They also help prevent fungus disease of
the plants and make the atmosphere more comfortable
for the workers and visitors.

Fish Breeding Units
 You will eventually need at least 5 acres for fish breeding tanks as well,
with their own biofiltration systems, drum filters, smaller aquaponic
biofilter, and also a reliable water supply.
 Fish breeding requires attention to detail and a certain amount of
training and experience.
 The equipment is a bit more complex than for later stages of fish
rearing
 Methyl testosterone feed is used with tilapia fry to make sure all adult
fish in the rearing tanks are male.
 This hormone is out of the fish metabolism by 180 days into the life
cycle which is less time than it takes them to grow to marketable size
from a dosed fry.
 You do not want females and breeding in the rearing tanks since you
want all the fish to grow out at the same rate to the same size without
wasting feed and time on fish that are substandard size and weight.

Depuration Tanks And Equipment
 Also you will need to have
depuration tanks for the
fish where they rest unfed
in pure water for 5 days
before slaughter. This is to
rinse away any 'off' flavors
from intensive rearing.
 These tanks will also have
to have their own filtration
system and aeration.

5 Metric Tonnes Of Fish, Plus Tonnes Of Vegetables
 The data for tilapia alone say
that one system yields 5 metric
tonnes of fish and at least that
for biomass (vegetables and
fruit) a year. So for 160 systems
(20 acres initially) you would be
getting up to 800 metric tons of
fish and 800 metric tons of
vegetable biomass a year once
all the systems were built and in
operation. For this volume of
food, you need a very good sales
and marketing team and
markets already in place, and
REFRIGERATED STORAGE in
abundance.

Fast Income
If you grow high end culinary herbs such as basil and tarragon, ,
you can expect to make serious money within the first six
months of operation and pay off any investment in a year or so.
 Two thirds of your income from aquaponics comes from
the vegetables and soft fruit such as melons. The fish only
bring in enough to pay operating expenses and are much
slower to start bringing in income (from a standing start,
you will not be able to start harvesting your fish for at least
six months (tilapia) to two years (trout).
Vegetables start coming out of the aquaponics systems
within eight weeks of pushing the start button, as long as
you have started your seedling propagation in advance to
be in sychronisation with the requirements of your main
aquaponics systems.

How It Works.


Buried Plumbing
 The pipework on an
aquaponics system
according to the UVI type
design is buried in the
ground under the tanks for
the most part.
 Access to pipework is kept
simple and free drainage
assured by basing the
system on a top layer of
gravel all over the system
site.

Some Questions
 WHAT ARE THE PRICE STRUCTURES FOR LOCAL PRODUCE
SUCH AS GOURMET LETTUCE, BASIL, CUCUMBERS, MELONS,
DELICATA SQUASH, CULINARY HERBS, FLOWERS, AND SO ON?
 What are the health and safety regulations like? For food
production and processing facilities?
 Have you gone into Concentrated Solar Power as an option? You
have the land and it is cheaper to install than solar panels for this
size, more efficient and moreover can be used to purify your
water supply at the same time.
 What are the rules about erecting tents or temporary buildings
on your light industry zoned area? Are there any?
 What are the grey water regulations? Are composting toilets
allowed in your area?
 We need to get the water supply from the well analysed
chemically and radiologically.
 Are there any banned species of plant or fish in your state?

How are we going to finance this?
 I am researching grants,
there seem to be quite a
few. However, we need a
plan to be established
with a really broad brief
to allow for courses to be
held and events, also
catering, as in a fish
restaurant, and food
processing area, that is
under the hygiene regs.

Other Areas Needed
 Storage and lading areas,
 Car parking
 Truck parking
 Work areas for construction of aquaponic systems
 Plant propagation houses
 Fish breeding systems (substantial space
required)
 Refrigeration rooms
 Food processing and fish filleting houses
 Office space and showers and toilets, reception,
and a staff kitchen.
 Classrooms and laboratories.
 Friendly insect breeding area
 Fish feed, chemicals and equipment storage
 Optional cafe, restaurant, event and conference
areas.
 Security perimeter and checkpoints
 Grey water treatment and recycling area
 Composting area
 Field crops area
 Water storage tanks for the whole farm.
 Spare isolation tanks for new imports of fish from
elsewhere.
 Staff housing and facilities.

Nevada Project Note
 That the warehouse has an
earthen floor is good news.
We will have to dig holes in
it to lay the pipework for
the aquaponic systems. A
gravel top layer will go on
top of this around the
tanks and over the
pipework. This prevents
mud, drains away water
spills and is easy to dig up
again.

Feasibility Study Urgent.
 A visit to sort this all out
and cost it properly at
each proposed site from
local sources of
equipment etc is urgent.
 The same as above
applies for any large scale
installation in Africa etc.

Aquaponics Food Factory Feasibility Study

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (18)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (16)

Ähnlich wie Aquaponics Food Factory Feasibility Study

Ähnlich wie Aquaponics Food Factory Feasibility Study (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Aquaponics Food Factory Feasibility Study