Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban

Aquaponics refers to a system that combines aquaculture (raising aquatic animals like fish) with hydroponics (cultivating vegetable plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. This system has great potential as a new industrialised food production approach to meet the needs of rapid urbanisation. A...

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Main Authors: Li, Chunjie, Lee, Chew Tin, Gao, Yueshu, Hashim, Haslenda, Zhang, Xiaojun, Wei, Min Wu, Zhang, Zhenjia
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Italian Association of Chemical Engineering - AIDIC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/84430/1/LeeChewTin2018_ProspectofAquaponicsfortheSustainableDevelopment.pdf
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author Li, Chunjie
Lee, Chew Tin
Gao, Yueshu
Hashim, Haslenda
Zhang, Xiaojun
Wei, Min Wu
Zhang, Zhenjia
author_facet Li, Chunjie
Lee, Chew Tin
Gao, Yueshu
Hashim, Haslenda
Zhang, Xiaojun
Wei, Min Wu
Zhang, Zhenjia
author_sort Li, Chunjie
collection ePrints
description Aquaponics refers to a system that combines aquaculture (raising aquatic animals like fish) with hydroponics (cultivating vegetable plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. This system has great potential as a new industrialised food production approach to meet the needs of rapid urbanisation. An evolutional food production system with high productivity and low resource consumption is desirable. Aquaponics is designed based on excellent ecology recycling system, i.e. the food residues and metabolic products in the effluent of aquaculture are pollutants to the environment; they are also the source of nutrients that can be converted and mineralised via microbial treatment and eventually up taken by plants in the hydroponics section. The effluent of hydroponics section is then recycled as clean water for the aquaculture section. Home-based aquaponics (HA), factory-based aquaponics (FA) and building-based aquaponics (BA) are the typical forms of aquaponics for different urban development. The sustainability of aquaponics practices is evaluated using the “triple-bottomline” approach, which requires assessment of impacts on environmental, economic and societal systems. There is a lack of systematic research and modelling work reported on aquaponics, especially in terms of ecological manipulation. Understanding the conversion of the pollutants in the combined system is essential to achieve the optimal manipulation of ecology for optimal system operation. Future work will focus on the production of pollutants in aquaculture, the conversion and degradation of the pollutants in the microbial treatment section, and uptake of organic nutrients and inorganic salts in the hydroponics section. Development of a model, capable of describing the release of pollutants, conversion and uptake of nutrients and the production of metabolic products, is desirable. The model could be developed based on the mass balance of nutrition, productivity of fish and plants and the environmental factors. The aquaponics system could be simulated and analysed using this model so as to provide an optimal system for the design and implementation of different type of aquaponics.
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spelling utm.eprints-844302020-01-11T07:08:14Z http://eprints.utm.my/84430/ Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban Li, Chunjie Lee, Chew Tin Gao, Yueshu Hashim, Haslenda Zhang, Xiaojun Wei, Min Wu Zhang, Zhenjia TP Chemical technology Aquaponics refers to a system that combines aquaculture (raising aquatic animals like fish) with hydroponics (cultivating vegetable plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. This system has great potential as a new industrialised food production approach to meet the needs of rapid urbanisation. An evolutional food production system with high productivity and low resource consumption is desirable. Aquaponics is designed based on excellent ecology recycling system, i.e. the food residues and metabolic products in the effluent of aquaculture are pollutants to the environment; they are also the source of nutrients that can be converted and mineralised via microbial treatment and eventually up taken by plants in the hydroponics section. The effluent of hydroponics section is then recycled as clean water for the aquaculture section. Home-based aquaponics (HA), factory-based aquaponics (FA) and building-based aquaponics (BA) are the typical forms of aquaponics for different urban development. The sustainability of aquaponics practices is evaluated using the “triple-bottomline” approach, which requires assessment of impacts on environmental, economic and societal systems. There is a lack of systematic research and modelling work reported on aquaponics, especially in terms of ecological manipulation. Understanding the conversion of the pollutants in the combined system is essential to achieve the optimal manipulation of ecology for optimal system operation. Future work will focus on the production of pollutants in aquaculture, the conversion and degradation of the pollutants in the microbial treatment section, and uptake of organic nutrients and inorganic salts in the hydroponics section. Development of a model, capable of describing the release of pollutants, conversion and uptake of nutrients and the production of metabolic products, is desirable. The model could be developed based on the mass balance of nutrition, productivity of fish and plants and the environmental factors. The aquaponics system could be simulated and analysed using this model so as to provide an optimal system for the design and implementation of different type of aquaponics. Italian Association of Chemical Engineering - AIDIC 2018 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/84430/1/LeeChewTin2018_ProspectofAquaponicsfortheSustainableDevelopment.pdf Li, Chunjie and Lee, Chew Tin and Gao, Yueshu and Hashim, Haslenda and Zhang, Xiaojun and Wei, Min Wu and Zhang, Zhenjia (2018) Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban. Chemical Engineering Transactions, 63 . pp. 475-480. ISSN 2283-9216 http://dx.doi.org/10.3303/CET1863080
spellingShingle TP Chemical technology
Li, Chunjie
Lee, Chew Tin
Gao, Yueshu
Hashim, Haslenda
Zhang, Xiaojun
Wei, Min Wu
Zhang, Zhenjia
Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title_full Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title_fullStr Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title_full_unstemmed Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title_short Prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
title_sort prospect of aquaponics for the sustainable development of food production in urban
topic TP Chemical technology
url http://eprints.utm.my/84430/1/LeeChewTin2018_ProspectofAquaponicsfortheSustainableDevelopment.pdf
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