New algal bioreactor design for clean food production with inland aquaculture

With increasing demand for fish and seafood products globally, inland aquaculture is becoming an important source of global food production. This is primarily because food can be produced in proximity to large and densely populated areas, cutting down on transportation costs and emissions. It also allows the use of a more diverse set of species as the risk of local species introductions is significantly reduced. Finally, inland aquaculture is less prone to natural disasters (hurricanes, typhoons, blooms, water contamination etc.). We are developing a photo-bioreactor for the removal of nutrients from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), making inland seafood production more sustainable and cost effective. In contrast to bacterial systems commonly used in the industry, our bioreactors will remove nitrogen, phosphate and CO2 at the same time and produce algae for commercialization. This leads to significant reductions in operating costs and can create an opportunity for inland aquaculture to increase profitability.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andreas Heyland;Wael Ahmed

Student:

Jordan Roszell

Partner:

Weston

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Guelph