Coupled aquaponics: Optimizing hydraulic retention times using a parallel unit process water treatment approach

Abstract

Coupled aquaponics is the integration of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and hydroponic cropping systems (HCS) into one system with shared culture water. Water conservation, revenue diversification, location-independent food production, and a reduced reliance on synthetically derived fertilizer salts have been identified as potential benefits of coupled aquaponic production. Despite these potential benefits, it has been difficult for producers to achieve success at the commercial scale. This review discusses how traditional linear coupled aquaponic system designs are not suited for intensive production due to a lack of scalability and water flow rate optimization to meet the differing requirements for finfish, vegetables, and water treatment with practices commensurate with the individual RAS and HCS industries. An alternative design for intensive coupled aquaponics is presented that utilizes a parallel unit process approach for independent hydraulic retention time optimization of each system component. The production benefits and scaling opportunities for each of the primary components in an aquaponics system are discussed. A review of recently published coupled aquaponics literature demonstrates that a system utilizing a parallel unit process design can result in more intensive fish production and a greater nutrient supply for plant production, leading to the potential for greater economic and space use efficiency.

A Predictive Model of Nutrient Recovery from RAS Drum-Screen Effluent for Reuse in Aquaponics

“…This coupled system was operated under commercial hydroponic and RAS production standards and designed to provide pilot-scale results that could be modeled for commercial systems. The layout of the system is shown in Figure 1, and it is fully described in previous work by the authors [19][20][21][22]. At the time of data collection, the system had been operating at feed and waste production rates established in the literature as commensurate with industrial RAS standards for over one year without any prominent changes to the system that would influence the data analysis [23,24].…”

Environmental parameters factors exploration on lettuce seed germination with hydrogel

“…Commercial-grade hydroponic systems are profitable to ensure the viability of the business. Space optimization and continuous production are two common approaches to improve profitability ( Tetreault et al., 2023 ). It also reduces the system’s dependency on the local climate.…”

Study on the plant and fish production in the aquaponic system as affected by different hydraulic loading rates

“…In this system, the dissolved nutrients in fish tank are used to supply crops with nutrients. The potential benefits of integrated production include increased revenue from the combination of fish and plant sales, minimized reliance on synthetically derived fertilizers, and both location independent and season-independent protein and vegetable production in food deserts 2 , 3 .…”