Aquatic Protein production in (saline) residual flows (KB-22-002-007)

There is a world wide attendance for innovative concepts to combine fish culture with other production forms (ao. in constructed wetlands). This is primarily performed using IMTA (Integrated MultiTrophic Aquacultuur), aquaponics (combination of fish culture and plant based productuion) and by the application of biofloc production. These are all examples of aquaculture in which marine waste flows are used for protein production.

Aquaponic systems have been develop since the last 50 years, and are applied on a small scale. This production method usually combines fish culture with culture of  fruit and vegetables. The generic idea is that these nutrentiens and the metabolies from fish culture are broken down by bacterieal and chemical processes and used for the production of plant proteins. Therefore, generally one focuesses on the maco nutrients nitrate and phosphate.  This is usually embedded in one production system. However, these concepts are hindered by insufficiently adjusted production environments, like pH, nutrients and essential minerals. Next to that the economy of scale (ratio between fish culture and plant biomassa) is a great challange to develop an economicly favourable production system. The challange to link the nutrient blance of the different crops with each other in a balanced way. Therefore it is essential not only to approach this challange from a macronutrient perspective, but also from a water quality and micro nutreitn perspective.

 This project strives to obtain insights in the micronutrient balance of marine protein production systems (fish), to facilitate the use of waste streams in linked systems, in which we primarily address the link between social desiresd protein production systems (ao. biofloc en/of aquaponics). The product of this work will be (if data availability allows) a peer reviewed paper.