Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Beyond our graduate student group, our target audiences with this combination of science and technology has been broad. In year three we have provided tours of our integrated fish-vegetable-algae production facility to the general and aquaponic-interested public (>700 visitors); hosted three aquaponic workshops to the general public, students, school teachers, business persons, investors and extension agent audiences; and presented our research findings at professional scientific meetings via presentations and a poster to researchers, farmers, and policy makers. We presented information from our project to entrepreneurs at the AU Food Entrepreneur workshop (100+attendees). We presented an aquaponic workshop at an international aquaculture professional meeting and conducted two additional national workshops at the Auburn University Fisheries Center that targeted practicing commercial aquaponic businesses. Our graduate aquaponic research students presented their research methods and findings to scientific audiences with a broad geographical reach at the World Aquaculture Society annual conference (45 attendees). Students and faculty presented at scientific and academic conferences (World Aquaculture Society, US Aquaculture Society, ASABE, AL Water Resources Conference, IWAlgae) locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally Students and faculty presented to the Auburn Campus community through various campus research conferences (Auburn This is Research) and through classroom lectures (FISH 1101, AGRI 1000, ENVI 1000) Faculty presented and taught at international and national commercial aquaponic workshops to a varied audience of researchers, business owners, government personnel, NGOs and students (October 2018, March 2019, April 2019) Changes/Problems:As this project is completed as of August 31, 2019, there are no changes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Producers workshop, "Aquaponics" October 2018, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 12 participants April 2019 "Aquaponics", Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 8 participants March 2019 "Producers Aquaponics workshop, WAS, New Orleans, LA, 77 participants "Aquaponics" breakout session. Sixth Annual Food Entrepreneur Conference, AU Food Systems Institute, April 17, 2019. Graduate level course and course material BSEN 7900 "Aquaponics I", Fall semester 2018. FISH 7960 "Aquaponics II", Spring semester 2019. Over 700 people toured the AU School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences research facility and included an introduction to Aquaponics at our facility where this interdisciplinary aquaponic research was conducted Presentations to research, government and practitioners of aquaponics at professional society meetings How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", April 2018, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 8 participant Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", March 2018, WAS, New Orleans, LA, 77 participants Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", October 2018, Auburn University, 12 participants Course and course material, BSEN 7900 "Aquaponics I", Fall semester 2018. Course and course material, FISH 7960 "Aquaponics II", Spring semester 2019. Over 700 people toured the AU School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences research facility and included an introduction to Aquaponics at our facility where this interdisciplinary aquaponic research was conducted Presentations to research, government and practitioners of aquaponics at professional society meetings What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project ends August 31, 2019 but we are in the process of writing additional grants to continue the aquaponics research, education and extension/outreach program at Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Economics component An aquaponic cash flow spreadsheet was updated to include this year's research production sales and expenses data. Cash flow results continued to be negative and was largely dependent on prices received for the products, which can vary by outlet type and their demand quantity and to the scale of production offered by our research facility setup. In addition, the research nature of the project with technical, biological and budgetary considerations made it difficult to implement efficiencies among the component linkages without affecting on-going experiments. Understanding the costs allows us to consider alternative methods to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Plant production made up 57% of operating costs, with labor and electricity being the major itemized costs. Fish operating costs were 43% of the total, with feed, fingerlings, labor and electricity being the major costs. Production and sales occurred year-round but tapered off during winter due to high heating costs and summer due to high greenhouse temperatures. If profitability were the focus, market development and sales would have been emphasized. Another factor was the matchup of a single plant greenhouse to a single fish greenhouse (existing facility) when one tank in the fish greenhouse could supply nutrients to three plant greenhouses. However, only when fish price was increased 240 percent from $2.50 to $6.00 per lb) did the cash flow become positive. Smaller scale aquaponic facilities and businesses would need to supply niche markets to obtain this fish price and could be a strategy for family size operations to pursue. Aquaculture component Tilapia production and sales for this project year has surpassed what we have been able to achieve in previous years. We have expanded our markets and seen an increase in the demand for live and processed tilapia. This accelerated movement of the tilapia product through our system has allowed us to feed the maturing fish more aggressively. Additionally, in the last year we have greatly expanded our vegetable production capacity and have therefore been using more fish effluent in vegetable production and thus replacing the high nutrient fish effluent with fresh water in our tilapia tank, improving the water quality. While the push of fish into new markets is common in aquaculture, the pull created by the expansion in vegetable production is something unique to aquaponics and the full potential therein is still being realized. Horticulture component - Aquaponic A study was conducted to determine the optimal cucumber crop cycle length for cool-season aquaponics cucumber production. Four production cycle lengths, from 65 days to 95 days, were compared to determine differences in yield and variable costs. Yield was 48% higher for the 95-day cycle length (10.35 kg/plant), compared to the 65-day cycle length (6.33 kg/plant) and the overall trend was linear. However, variable costs increased exponentially with cycle length, ranging from $0.89/cucumber to $1.21/cucumber. Energy costs were the major driver of the variable cost increase, contributing to over half of total variable costs. Because of high energy costs required to maintain suitable growing conditions for cucumbers in cool season production, shorter cycle lengths would reduce input costs. A study was conducted to determine effects of aquaponic effluent (AE) pH on nutrient uptake and growth and yield of greenhouse cucumbers. Effluent pH did not affect growth rate or yield. With few exceptions, AE nutrient concentrations were lower than recommended for greenhouse cucumber, but uptake quantities of all nutrients were within reported sufficiency ranges. Most notably, iron concentrations in AE were 50 - 130x lower than recommended, but cucumber plants were not iron deficient. Since many plant nutrients are scarce in AE solution, we hypothesize that nutrients are present in suspended solids in AE which accumulate in perlite media and are made available to plants during the course of the growing cycle. A third study to determine nutrient concentrations in suspended solids of AE is being conducted. Biosystems Engineering - Lactic Acid fermentation of wastes and biomass sources During this period, we optimized the application of fish waste as a nutrient source for lactic acid (LA) fermentation by supplementing with a small amount of yeast extract (YE). Three dosage levels of tilapia waste sludge (10, 15, and 30 g/L) were investigated with supplementation of 1-5 g/L YE for LA fermentation using 100g/L glucose as the substrate. Satisfactory results were obtained with 10 g/L Tilapia waste and 5 g/L YE, giving 98% LA yield within 36 hr. Experimental data showed excellent fitness to a kinetic model with a regression coefficient (r-square) of 0.982 - 0.998. We also investigated the feasibility of LA fermentation of algal biomass and cucumber plant residue. Algae was grown indoors on waste liquid aquaponics effluent. Dried algae and cucumber plant residue were characterized to find their composition data. The composition percentages of sugars were generally lowest for algae and cucumber leaves, and higher for cucumber stems and whole-plant residue, with moderate ash contents (greater than 20%) seen for all. For LA fermentation, the algae substrate at 20 wt% loading gave 14.2 g/L LA production with a yield of 65% without pretreatment. Pretreatment of algae resulted in a 5% yield increase, suggesting that pretreatment is not required for adequate LA conversion of algae. The unpretreated and pretreated cucumber whole biomass (10% solid loading) gave a LA yield of 36% and 89%, respectively. These numbers of yield are overall favorable, and suggest the possibility of LA fermentation as an economically viable option for waste biomass utilization. Future work will focus on determining the economic model and cost-benefit structure of LA fermentation of aquaponics wastes using these parameters. Food Safety The populations of E. coli and coliforms in the aquaponics system were monitored from February to July 2009. Results showed that the coliforms had a slight increase as the temperature increased at all sampled points, but decreased in half way through summer. All samples ranged from 3 to 6 log CFU/100 mL of water. All sampling points had a similar trend of coliforms populations, except the water source, which was lower. In midsummer, the water exchange rate of fish tank was increased resulting in the decrease of coliforms population and E. coli ranging from 0 to 3.75 log CFU/100 mL. E. coli populations at all irrigation drippers were similar and there were only several samples were higher than the average, but most of the samples were below 0.5 log CFU/100 mL. The solids exchange in the fish tank exit water had higher E. coli populations than those in the other sampling points. This might due to the E. coli attachment on the solid particles. The populations of E. coli, coliforms, and total aerobic counts in the aquaponics water in a nutrition film technique (NFT) was studied. The aquaponics water in the system were changed in every 4, 8, 12, and 16 days, respectively. Results showed that in the 4 day water exchange trial, the populations of E. coli (<1 log CFU/100 mL water) and total aerobic count (~6.5 log CFU/100 mL water) were similar to their initial numbers, whereas the coliforms decreased from 4.5 log to 3.4 CFU/100 mL. For 8 days water exchange trial, the total aerobic count did not change significantly, and the coliforms decreased. In the 12 days water exchange trial, E. coli, coliforms, and total aerobic count were decreased compared to the initial populations. After the same water ran through the system for 16 days, the total aerobic counts increased. The populations of E. coli and coliforms decreased.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Guan, W., & Blersch, D. (2018). Nutrient value of fish manure waste on lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus pentosus. RSC advances, 8(55), 31267-31274.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Smith, M., T.R. Hanson, B. Higgins, D. Wells, D. Blersch. 2019. Developing Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Framework to Test the Sustainability of Aquaponic Systems. Abstract printed in the Book of Abstracts of Aquaculture 2019, March 7-11, New Orleans, LA, p. 1025.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wells, D.E., Blersch, D.M., Chappell, J., Hanson, T., Huang, T., Smith, M. 2018. The Auburn University aquaponics initiative: leveraging university resources to enhance teaching and research. HortScience 53(9): S480. Abstract.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Willmon, E.S., J.M. Dorick, S.J. Weese, T. S. Huang, T.R. Hanson. Microbial Assessment of Irrigation Water and Vine Produce in an Aquaponics System. 2019. Published in the World Aquaculture Society, Aquaculture 2019 conference book of abstracts, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11. Abstract: p. 311.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blanchard, C.E., Wells, D.E., Pickens, J.M., and Blersch, D.M., and M.R. Smith. 2019. Optimum planting density and substrate combination for Socrates cucumber grown in an aquaponic system. Presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Jan 31 Feb. 5, Birmingham, AL. HortScience (In press)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blanchard, C.E., Wells, D.E., Pickens, J.M., and D.M. Blersch. 2019. Optimum production cycle length for Deltastar cucumbers grown in an aquaponic system. Presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Jan 31 Feb. 5, Birmingham, AL. HortScience (In press)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blersch, D.M. (2019). Improving algal turf scrubber performance in recovery of aquaculture wastewater nutrients with design of 3D growth substrata. Presentation at the IWAlgae 2019, June 30-July 3, 2019, Valladolid, Spain.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, Terry. 2019. Aquaponic Investment, operating costs and business planning. Presented at the 2019 Commercial Aquaponics Workshop, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, April 9.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, Terry. 2019. Aquaponic Economics, Marketing and Business Planning. Presented at Aquaculture 2019, Commercial Aquaponics Workshop, World Aquaculture Society 2019 meetings, New Orleans, LA, March 7.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Johnson, M.*, Shi, S., Burgess, N.*, Blersch, D.M. (2018). Formulation of fish waste as nutrient for lactic acid fermentation with supplement of yeast extract. Presented at Interdisciplinary STEM REU Symposium at Auburn University. July 20. Auburn, AL. (poster).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Blersch, D. (2018). Lactic acid production from solid catfish waste (manure). American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Conference, July 29-Aug 1, 2019, Detroit, MI.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Burgess, N.*, Blersch, D.M. (2018). Value-added Product from Aquaculture Wastes . 2018 Alabama Water Resources Conference, September 5 -7th, 2018, Orange Beach, AL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Smith, M., T.R. Hanson, B. Higgins, D. Wells, D. Blersch. 2019. Developing Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Framework to Test the Sustainability of Aquaponic Systems. Presented at the World Aquaculture Society annual Aquaculture 2019 conference, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Willmon, E.S., J.M. Dorick, S.J. Weese, T. Shi Huang, T.R. Hanson. Microbial Assessment of Irrigation Water and Vine Produce in an Aquaponic System. 2019. Presented at the Aquaculture 2019 conference, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Pickens, H. Tran, D.A. Pattillo. 2019. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at Auburn University, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn, AL April 9 (8 attendees).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Pickens, H. Tran, D.A. Pattillo. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at the Aquaculture 2019 meeting, New Orleans, LA. March 7, 2019 (77 attendees).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Rakocy, D. Wells, D. Blersch, J. Pickens, F. Pettit, D. Cline, H. Tran, A. Stone. 2018. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at Auburn University, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn, AL, October 23-25 (12 participants).
|
Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Beyond our graduate student group, our target audiences with this combination of science, technology and extension has been broad. In year three we conducted tours of our integrated fish-vegetable-algae production facility to the general and aquaponic-interested public (>700 visitors); hosted three aquaponic workshops to the general public, students, school teachers, business persons, investors and extension agent audiences; and presented our research findings at professional scientific meetings via presentations and a poster to researchers, farmers, and policy makers. We presented information from our project to entrepreneurs at the AU Food Entrepreneur workshop (100+attendees). We presented an aquaponic workshop at an international aquaculture professional meeting and conducted two additional national workshops at the Auburn University E.W. Shell Fisheries Station that targeted practicing commercial aquaponic businesses. Our graduate aquaponic research students presented their research methods and findings to scientific audiences with a broad geographical reach at the World Aquaculture Society annual conference (45 attendees). Students and faculty presented at scientific and academic conferences (World Aquaculture Society, US Aquaculture Society, ASABE, AL Water Resources Conference, IWAlgae) locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally Students and faculty presented to the Auburn Campus community through various campus research conferences (Auburn This is Research) and through classroom lectures (FISH 1101, AGRI 1000, ENVI 1000) Faculty presented and taught at international and national commercial aquaponic workshops to a varied audience of researchers, business owners, government personnel, NGOs and students (October 2018, March 2019, April 2019) Changes/Problems:As this project was completed August 31, 2019, there are no changes to be made. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Producers workshop, "Aquaponics" October 2018, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 12 participants April 2019 "Aquaponics", Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 8 participants March 2019 "Producers Aquaponics workshop, WAS, New Orleans, LA, 77 participants "Aquaponics" breakout session. Sixth Annual Food Entrepreneur Conference, AU Food Systems Institute, April 17, 2019. Graduate level course and course material BSEN 7900 "Aquaponics I", Fall semester 2018. FISH 7960 "Aquaponics II", Spring semester 2019. Over 700 people toured the AU School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences research facility and included an introduction to Aquaponics at our facility where this interdisciplinary aquaponic research was conducted Presentations to research, government and practitioners of aquaponics at professional society meetings How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", April 2018, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 8 participant Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", March 2018, WAS, New Orleans, LA, 77 participants Producers workshop, "Aquaponics", October 2018, Auburn University, 12 participants Course and course material, BSEN 7900 "Aquaponics I", Fall semester 2018. Course and course material, FISH 7960 "Aquaponics II", Spring semester 2019. Over 700 people toured the AU School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences research facility and included an introduction to Aquaponics at our facility where this interdisciplinary aquaponic research was conducted Presentations to research, government and practitioners of aquaponics at professional society meetings What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project ended August 31, 2019 and we met the goals and objectives initially laid out in our proposal. Much was learned about the functioning of an integrated fish-plant-algae aquaponic system. We are now in the process of writing additional grants to continue the aquaponics research, education and extension/outreach program at Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Economics component An aquaponic cash flow spreadsheet was updated to include this year's research production sales and expenses data. Cash flow results continued to be negative and was largely dependent on prices received for the products, which can vary by outlet type and their demand quantity and to the scale of production offered by our research facility setup. In addition, the research nature of the project with technical, biological and budgetary considerations made it difficult to implement efficiencies among the component linkages without affecting on-going experiments in the plant greenhouse and algal scrubbers. Understanding the costs allowed us to hypotehsize alternative methods to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Plant production made up 57% of operating costs, with labor and electricity being the major itemized costs, while fish operating costs were 43% of the total, with feed, fingerlings, labor and electricity being the major costs. Production and sales occurred year-round but tapered off during winter due to high heating costs and summer due to high greenhouse temperatures. If profitability were the focus, market development and sales would have been emphasized. Another factor was the matchup of a single plant greenhouse to a single fish greenhouse (existing facility) when one tank in the fish greenhouse could hypothetically supply nutrients to three plant greenhouses. This economy of scale could not be tested during the timeframe of this project. Smaller scale aquaponic facilities, like ours, would need to supply niche markets to obtain higher fish prices and could be a strategy for family size operations to pursue for profitability. Aquaculture component Over the life of the project, tilapia production and sales increased and by the end, surpassed what was achievee in years one and two. We expanded markets and have seen an increase in the demand for live and processed tilapia. This accelerated movement of tilapia through our system has allowed us to feed the maturing fish more aggressively. Additionally, in the last year we have greatly expanded our vegetable production capacity and have therefore been using more fish effluent in vegetable production and thus replacing the high nutrient fish effluent with fresh water in our tilapia tank, improving the water quality. While the push of fish into new markets is common in aquaculture, the pull created by the expansion in vegetable production is something unique to aquaponics and the full potential therein is still being realized. Horticulture component - Aquaponic Several studies were conducted to determine the optimal cucumber crop cycle length for cool-season aquaponics cucumber production. Four production cycle lengths, from 65 days to 95 days, were compared to determine differences in yield and variable costs. Yield was 48% higher for the 95-day cycle length (10.35 kg/plant), compared to the 65-day cycle length (6.33 kg/plant) and the overall trend was linear. However, variable costs increased exponentially with cycle length, ranging from $0.89/cucumber to $1.21/cucumber. Energy costs were the major driver of the variable cost increase, contributing more than half of total variable costs. Because of high energy costs required to maintain suitable growing conditions for cucumbers in cool season production, shorter cycle lengths would reduce input costs. A study was conducted to determine effects of aquaponic effluent (AE) pH on nutrient uptake and growth and yield of greenhouse cucumbers. Effluent pH did not affect growth rate or yield. With few exceptions, AE nutrient concentrations were lower than recommended for greenhouse cucumber, but uptake quantities of all nutrients were within reported sufficiency ranges. Most notably, iron concentrations in AE were 50 - 130x lower than recommended, but cucumber plants were not iron deficient. Since many plant nutrients are scarce in AE solution, we hypothesize that nutrients are present in suspended solids in AE which accumulate in perlite media and are made available to plants during the course of the growing cycle. A post project study to determine nutrient concentrations in suspended solids of AE will be conducted. Biosystems Engineering - Lactic Acid fermentation of wastes and biomass sources Over this project timeframe, we optimized the application of fish waste as a nutrient source for lactic acid (LA) fermentation by supplementing with a small amount of yeast extract (YE). Three dosage levels of tilapia waste sludge (10, 15, and 30 g/L) were investigated with supplementation of 1-5 g/L YE for LA fermentation using 100g/L glucose as the substrate. Satisfactory results were obtained with 10 g/L Tilapia waste and 5 g/L YE, giving 98% LA yield within 36 hr. Experimental data showed excellent fitness to a kinetic model with a regression coefficient (r-square) of 0.982 - 0.998. We also investigated the feasibility of LA fermentation of algal biomass and cucumber plant residue. Algae was grown indoors on waste liquid aquaponics effluent. Dried algae and cucumber plant residue were characterized to find their composition data. The composition percentages of sugars were generally lowest for algae and cucumber leaves, and higher for cucumber stems and whole-plant residue, with moderate ash contents (greater than 20%) seen for all. For LA fermentation, the algae substrate at 20 wt% loading gave 14.2 g/L LA production with a yield of 65% without pretreatment. Pretreatment of algae resulted in a 5% yield increase, suggesting that pretreatment is not required for adequate LA conversion of algae. The unpretreated and pretreated cucumber whole biomass (10% solid loading) gave a LA yield of 36% and 89%, respectively. These numbers of yield are overall favorable, and suggest the possibility of LA fermentation as an economically viable option for waste biomass utilization. Post project work will focus on determining the economic model and cost-benefit structure of LA fermentation of aquaponics wastes using these parameters. Food Safety The populations of E. coli and coliforms in the aquaponics system were monitored and results showed that the coliforms had a slight increase as the temperature increased at all sampled points, but decreased in half way through summer. All samples ranged from 3 to 6 log CFU/100 mL of water. All sampling points had a similar trend of coliforms populations, except the water source, which was lower. In midsummer, the water exchange rate of fish tank was increased resulting in the decrease of coliforms population and E. coli ranging from 0 to 3.75 log CFU/100 mL. E. coli populations at all irrigation drippers were similar and only a few samples were higher than the average, but most of the samples were below 0.5 log CFU/100 mL. The solids exchange in the fish tank exit water (to the clarifier unit) had higher E. coli populations than those in the other sampling points. This might due to the E. coli attachment on the solid particles. The populations of E. coli, coliforms, and total aerobic counts in the aquaponics water in a nutrition film technique (NFT) was studied. The aquaponics water in the system was exchanged every 4, 8, 12, and 16 days. Results showed that the 4 day water exchange trial had an E. coli population of <1 log CFU/100 mL water and total aerobic count of ~6.5 log CFU/100 mL water, and were similar to their initial numbers, whereas the coliforms decreased from 4.5 log to 3.4 CFU/100 mL. For the 8 day water exchange trial, the total aerobic count did not change significantly, and the coliforms decreased. In the 12 day water exchange trial, E. coli, coliforms, and total aerobic count decreased compared to the initial populations. After the same water ran through the system for 16 days, the total aerobic counts increased, while the populations of E. coli and coliforms decreased.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Guan, W., & Blersch, D. (2018). Nutrient value of fish manure waste on lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus pentosus. RSC advances, 8(55), 31267-31274.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Smith, M., T.R. Hanson, B. Higgins, D. Wells, D. Blersch. 2019. Developing Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Framework to Test the Sustainability of Aquaponic Systems. Abstract printed in the Book of Abstracts of Aquaculture 2019, March 7-11, New Orleans, LA, p. 1025.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Wells, D.E., Blersch, D.M., Chappell, J., Hanson, T., Huang, T., Smith, M. 2018. The Auburn University aquaponics initiative: leveraging university resources to enhance teaching and research. HortScience 53(9): S480. Abstract.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Willmon, E.S., J.M. Dorick, S.J. Weese, T. S. Huang, T.R. Hanson. Microbial Assessment of Irrigation Water and Vine Produce in an Aquaponics System. 2019. Published in the World Aquaculture Society, Aquaculture 2019 conference book of abstracts, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11. Abstract: p. 311.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blanchard, C.E., Wells, D.E., Pickens, J.M., and Blersch, D.M., and M.R. Smith. 2019. Optimum planting density and substrate combination for Socrates cucumber grown in an aquaponic system. Presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Jan 31 Feb. 5, Birmingham, AL. HortScience (In press)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blanchard, C.E., Wells, D.E., Pickens, J.M., and D.M. Blersch. 2019. Optimum production cycle length for Deltastar cucumbers grown in an aquaponic system. Presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Jan 31 Feb. 5, Birmingham, AL. HortScience (In press)
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Blersch, D.M. (2019). Improving algal turf scrubber performance in recovery of aquaculture wastewater nutrients with design of 3D growth substrata. Presentation at the IWAlgae 2019, June 30-July 3, 2019, Valladolid, Spain.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, Terry. 2019. Aquaponic Investment, operating costs and business planning. Presented at the 2019 Commercial Aquaponics Workshop, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, April 9.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, Terry. 2019. Aquaponic Economics, Marketing and Business Planning. Presented at Aquaculture 2019, Commercial Aquaponics Workshop, World Aquaculture Society 2019 meetings, New Orleans, LA, March 7.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Johnson, M.*, Shi, S., Burgess, N.*, Blersch, D.M. (2018). Formulation of fish waste as nutrient for lactic acid fermentation with supplement of yeast extract. Presented at Interdisciplinary STEM REU Symposium at Auburn University. July 20. Auburn, AL. (poster).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Blersch, D. (2018). Lactic acid production from solid catfish waste (manure). American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Conference, July 29-Aug 1, 2019, Detroit, MI.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Shi, S., Burgess, N.*, Blersch, D.M. (2018). Value-added Product from Aquaculture Wastes . 2018 Alabama Water Resources Conference, September 5 -7th, 2018, Orange Beach, AL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Smith, M., T.R. Hanson, B. Higgins, D. Wells, D. Blersch. 2019. Developing Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Framework to Test the Sustainability of Aquaponic Systems. Presented at the World Aquaculture Society annual Aquaculture 2019 conference, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Willmon, E.S., J.M. Dorick, S.J. Weese, T. Shi Huang, T.R. Hanson. Microbial Assessment of Irrigation Water and Vine Produce in an Aquaponic System. 2019. Presented at the Aquaculture 2019 conference, New Orleans, LA, March 7-11.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Pickens, H. Tran, D.A. Pattillo. 2019. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at Auburn University, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn, AL April 9 (8 attendees).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Pickens, H. Tran, D.A. Pattillo. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at the Aquaculture 2019 meeting, New Orleans, LA. March 7, 2019 (77 attendees).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., J. Chappell, J. Rakocy, D. Wells, D. Blersch, J. Pickens, F. Pettit, D. Cline, H. Tran, A. Stone. 2018. Commercial Aquaponics Workshop. Conducted at Auburn University, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn, AL, October 23-25 (12 participants).
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience: Beyond our graduate student group, our target audiences with this combination of science and technology has been broad. In year two we have provided tours of our integrated fish-vegetable-algae production facility to the general and aquaponic-interested public; hosted two aquaponic workshops to the general public, students, school teachers, businesspersons, investors and extension agent audiences; and presented our research findings at professional/scientific meetings via presentations and a poster to researchers, farmers, and policy makers. Specific events and audiences targeted included an extension workshop targeting the public interested in learning about aquaponics. We also presented information from our project to entrepreneurs at the AU Food Entrepreneur workshop (100+ attendees) and at a Soy Aquaculture Alliance meeting (18 attendees) with attendees coming from major mid-west soy producing States.An Extension Aquaponics workshop (55 attendees) was conducted for a regional audience in north Alabama. Our graduate students present to scientific audiences with a broad geographical reach at the World Aquaculture Society annual conference (75 attendees). Changes/Problems:Tilapia waste was not a good source for carbon in fermentation. However, we have discovered that it is a good nutrient source for fermentation, mixed with other cellulosic waste products such as paper mill sludge. We have pursued experiments investigating cellulosic wastes combined with fish waste sludge for performance in lactic acid production. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The five incoming NNF graduate students plus an additional four graduate students are being trained formally using the project for support funds and facilities developed at the E.W. Shell Fishery station. Additionally, other students at Auburn involved in the Master of Aquaculture program are being exposed to this science and technology as well. On a more incidental basis, a wide variety of students from the Auburn Fisheries department, horticulture and biosystems engineering are also being exposed to this area of science. This fall we will be offering a short course workshop designed for business interests in commercial aquaponics. We expect 15 to 30 individuals to participate in that workshop. Additionally, students both those mentioned above and other students will similarly be involved in the workshop. An additional element we plan to develop an aquaponics ebook that will be broadly distributed through our ACES extension apparatus. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The aquaponics facility has been a constant item on the tour of the Auburn University E.W. Shell Fisheries Station.As of 8/7/18 we have recorded 814 visitors from 15 States and 9 Countries. The tour exposes visitors to the current state of aquaculture and aquaponics technology, beginning with a general discussion of the importance of aquaculture/aquaponics as an important and sustainable future food resource. The aquaponic technology emphasizes conservation of water, energy and nutrients toward a small environmental impact through reuse and full utilization of resource inputs. The guests then see a variety of fish handling and production technologies, laboratories, greenhouses, and pond facilities. We also discuss career opportunities and the importance of STEM learning to daily life. In production now is the Alabama Public Television, "Spotlight on Agriculture, Episode 3", a video that will focus on our aquaponics system from an educational point of view. We conducted an "Introduction to Aquaculture Presentation, Aquaponics 101 Teacher Workshop" on July 9, 2018 that trains high school science teachers aquaponic principles that they then take back and incorporate into their classroom curriculum and outdoor projects. Further, several popular articles are in process of development for distribution to the public. The fish and vegetable products will largely be moved to the AU dining system where they will be featured on the plates of numerous students at AU. Campus dining has been committed in assisting in development of this project and continue to make information about production of local foodstuffs such as these to the student body at large. Several presentations regarding the aquaponic science and technology have been presented at national and international level professional conferences as well as at county level extension meetings and workshops. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research - we continue development of a broad research base within this project area and with the addition of 5 NNF graduate students numerous research projects will be conceived and developed in project areas not just in aquaculture but in horticulture and biosystems as well. Some are likely to be multidisciplinary in their nature. Each of these students are encouraged to develop technical articles for publication as well as their particular dissertation and thesis project papers. The capability of the fish production system allows for additional plant production beyond our initial single plant greenhouse and we are completing development of two additional plant greenhouses for involvement in this project area. Water, electrical and lighting systems are being completed for full operation of the new greenhouse units this fall. We believe the economy of scale issue will be evaluated more accurately with the addition of two more plant greenhouses. We expect the aquaponic financial results will be improved by adding two plant greenhouses to the existing system. We believe this could reduce plant and fish fixed costs as more product output could reduce per unit costs. We believe the single fish greenhouse nutrient stream will be sufficient to supply enough liquid fish nutrient fertilizer for the two additional plant greenhouses and will test this in the upcoming year. In the upcoming year, we will work on adapting our research data into applied commercial enterprise budgets. In horticulture, we will be implementing effluent pH studies in the coming year with the goal of optimizing nutrient use efficiency in the aquaponics system. Education - the education of the first wave of the NNF students will be taught in an introductory graduate level aquaponics course and in more discipline specific courses during their programs. Extension - we will continue development of extension oriented publications/videos as a portion of our broad reach extension effort. Further, we plan to invite the regional and county extension personnel and leaders to an information dense workshop designed specifically for them as they are often the first link to public citizens that have interest in aquaponics. We will seek out the possibilty of engaging business collaborators that will act in an advisory capacity for continued development of this technology and the information around it. Private companies often have skill sets and personnel with expertise in areas in which we are limited.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Economic component - fish and plant greenhouse construction costs including itemized fixed costs for capital and equipment/machinery items were developed. Total investment for the fish greenhouse (30' x 96') amounted to $60,115; and for the plant greenhouse, $51,829. Annual fixed costs for the fish and plant greenhouses totaled $ 23,447. Fish and plant production trials resulted combined tilapia/cucumber sales of $24,358, operating costs of $36,844 and fixed costs of $23,447, resulted in net losses (-$35,932). We believe this is an economy of scale issue and could be improved by adding two plant greenhouses, and reduce overall fixed costs per output unit. We believe the single fish greenhouse nutrient stream will be sufficient to supply enough liquid fish nutrient fertilizer for the two additional plant greenhouses. 2. Aquaculture Component - ramped up fish and vegetable production in an effort to achieve quasi-commercial production levels within the overall context. Developed links with AU Campus dining and local markets for users of aquaponic fish and vegetables which served as a good market test for aquaponic products. We did some revamping of the production systems within fish and plant production areas. We hosted numerous visitors to the site with both commercial and educational interests. From an educational standpoint, numerous students, faculty and teachers have accessed information and technologies demonstrated at the site. Commercial business visitors and interest continue to grow but this particular iteration of an aquaponics facility is limited as to its financial viability because of its small scale. The current demonstration model is well equipped to do high quality research but is limited in its business viability due to its scale. We have secured the first group of National Needs Fellowship graduate students that will be exposed to a comprehensive aquaponics science and technology program; there are 1 PhD and 4 Master of Science graduate students involved in the initial group. 3. Horticulture Component - Aquaponic -crops grown in the system were expanded to include tomatoes and bell peppers. Experimental results previously reported with cucumbers were validated for tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L. var. cerasiforme) were grown in aged pine bark (PB) and perlite substrates in the aquaponics system. No differences were observed in tomato yield or quality between PB and perlite. PB is a substrate component that is readily available and inexpensive in the southeastern US which would represent a 400% cost savings for variable costs associated with substrates. Experiments focusing on improving greenhouse lettuce production by manipulating root zone temperature were conducted. The objectives were to determine optimum root zone temperature for greenhouse-grown lettuce and to determine a scalable method to heat or cool aquaponic effluent to the optimum temperature. Nighttime temperature was a better predictor for lettuce size, head weight, and root weight indicating that nighttime temperature may be more important for growth than daytime temperature. We determined that 26.9 C was the optimum root zone temperature for lettuce grown in deep water culture. Our current work in this area is focused on scaling equipment and control systems to provide optimum temperatures in both day and night. A timing study is currently under way to determine the optimum production time for mini cucumbers grown in aquaponics systems. Experimental treatments consist of pre-determined termination dates for greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. 'Deltastar') ranging from 50 to 100 days. Labor hours and other material inputs are being quantified over the course of the treatment time periods to compare the marketable yields of each plant with the time and materials spent on each plant. This will allow us to determine the optimum production interval for mini cucumbers in an aquaponic system. 4. Biosystems Engineering - Tilapia waste as nutrient source for lactic acid production: tilapia manure waste was collected from the settling tank attached to the greenhouse tilapia production tank in our aquaponic facility. The carbohydrate composition of the manure waste sample was analyzed to be 6.7% glucan, 3.5% xylan, 1.8% glactab, 3.5% arabinan, 1.2% mannan. The elemental analysis showed it contains 4.53% carbon and 0.45% nitrogen. The nutrient effect of tilapia manure waste on lactic acid fermentation was investigated and compared to catfish waste for their performance. Tilapia waste has a greater overall performance than catfish waste. The fish wastes tested showed low efficiency in the direct fermentation of glucose, but satisfactory results were obtained in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of cellulosic materials, such as pure cellulose and paper sludge. The highest lactic acid yield obtained was 87% and 91% with the corresponding volumetric productivity of 1.006 and 0.580 g/L·h, and corresponding lactic acid concentration of 96 and 56 g/L for cellulose and paper sludge, respectively. Fish waste concentrations did not show much impact on lactic acid production for SSF process, where increasing fish waste from 10 to 30 g/L resulted in less than 10% yield increase. Fish manure waste was proven to be an effective and economic nutrient source for lactic acid production by SSF. The direct fermentation of glucose with low amounts of fish waste is not efficient and the introduction of high loading of fish waste will bring in impurities which complicate the downstream purification. With supplement of small amount of yeast extract, fish wastes showed improved efficiency as nutrient source for lactic acid fermentation. Satisfactory results were obtained with 10 g/L fish waste with combination of 5 g/L yeast extract. A formulation model was used to evaluate the results of fermentation. Proposed models showed excellent fitness to the experimental data with regression coefficient (r-square) in the range of 0.93 to 0.99. The low dosage of fish wastes minimized the input of impurities for the downstream separation. 5. Food Safety - populations of both E. coli and coliforms in fish tank water effluent were 6 and 648 CFU/100 mL, respectively in November 2016 and decreased from initial numbers in December as the temperature fell, with the lowest numbers (0 for all E. coli) taken in January 2017, with the lowest water temperature of 17.5 °C. Populations remained very low for E. coli before increasing in May 2017 and reached the highest level of 60 CFU/100 mL in August, and remained high until cooling off in November. Coliform populations remained low after January 2017. Populations of coliforms were more varied and higher than E. coli. No significant differences in populations of E. coli were found between the fish tank effluent and the effluents of the tomato plants in the perlite and pine bark growth media. However, the populations of E. coli in cucumber effluents were significantly higher than that of the fish tank effluent. The populations of both E. coli and coliform bacteria in the produce soil media showed a decrease starting in December as temperatures decreased. Populations of coliforms continued to decrease throughout January and February, and remained low. E. coli populations also fell and remained low until the end of August. There was little difference over time in E. coli populations; however, coliform populations exhibited more variation. No significant difference was found between the cucumber pine bark and perlite treatments when compared to each of the tomato treatments for any E. coli populations. The presence of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes were tested in 310 cucumber samples and 270 tomato samples and confirmed via PCR. No Salmonella was detected in all tomato and cucumber samples. There were 5 cucumber samples and 1 tomato sample found L. monocytogenes positive.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
M.R. Smith, D. Wells, T. Hanson, J. Chappell, D. Blersch. 2018. Water and Nutrient Management and Savings in Closed-Loop Aquaponic Tilapia-Vegetable Production. Presented at the Aquaculture America 2018 conference, Las Vegas, NV, Feb 19-22.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Hanson, T.R., D. Blersch, J. Chappell, D. Wells, T. Huang, M. Smith. 2018. Improving Aquacultures Value Through Enhanced Nutrient Management. Poster presented at the Aquaculture America 2018 conference, Las Vegas, NV, Feb 19-22.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Microbial Quality of Aquaculture Water Used for Produce Irrigation. Evelyn Willmon, Geraldine Santos-Norris, Ywh-Min Tzou, Michelle Hayden, Tian Ren, Jean Weese, Tung-Shi Huang. Presented at This is Research: Student Symposium 2018 at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, April 3, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Microbial Quality of Aquaculture Water for Produce Irrigation. Evelyn Willmon, Geraldine Santos-Norris, Ywh-Min Tzou, Michelle Hayden, Tian Ren, Jean Weese, Tung-Shi Huang. Presented at 2018 International Association of Food Protection Annual meeting at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, July 8-11, 2018.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Willmon, Evelyn Sophia. 2018. Microbial Quality of Aquaculture Water Used for Produce Irrigation. Master of Science thesis. Auburn University, Department of Poultry Science. August 4. https://etd.auburn.edu/handle/10415/6331
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., & Blersch, D. M. (2018). Utilization of solid catfish manure waste as carbon and nutrient source for lactic acid production. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 102(11), 4765-4772.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Guan, W., & Blersch, D. M. Nutrient value of fish manure waste on lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus pentosus. Submitted to RSC Advances, currently under 2nd round review.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Rubisch*, M.C., Blersch, D.M. 2017. Tidal flow wetlands with feedback control for management of nitrogen in aquaculture wastewater. Poster presented at the 2017 College of Agriculture Graduate Poster Showcase. Oct. 26. Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, S., Li, J., Blersch, D. 2018. Lactic Acid Production From Solid Catfish Waste (Manure). Suan Shi, Jing Li and David M. Blersch. Presented at Aquaculture America 2018 Conference at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, February 19 - 22.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
McQuilling, A., Blersch, D.M., Wells, D. 2018. Modeling nitrogen use efficiency in multi-trophic aquaculture production. Presented at American Chemical Society National Meeting and Expo. March 18-22. New Orleans, LA.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Johnson, M., Shi, S., Burgess, N., Blersch, D. 2018. Formulation of Fish Waste as Nutrient for Lactic Acid Fermentation with Supplement of Yeast Extract. Poster presented at Interdisciplinary STEM REU Symposium at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, July 20, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Blersch, D., Shi, S., Li, J. 2018. Lactic acid production from aquaculture fish manure. Presented at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Conference at Detroit, Michigan, USA, July 29-Aug 1.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Conversations in Celebration of Teaching at Auburn University - The Auburn University Aquaponics Initiative: Leveraging University Resources to Enhance Teaching and Research - 26 January 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Florida Panhandle Fruit and Vegetable Conference - Auburn Universitys Approach to Aquaponics - 20 February 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wells, D.E., Blersch, D.M., Chappell, J., Hanson, T., Huang, T., and M. Smith. 2018. The Auburn University aquaponics initiative: leveraging university resources to enhance teaching and research. HortScience (In press).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Wells, D.E., and J.M. Pickens. 2018. Effects of nutrient solution temperature on growth of greenhouse-grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). HortScience (In press)
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Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences with this combination of science and technology has been broad. In year one we have provided tours of our facility to the general and aquaponic-interested public; hosted two aquaponic workshops to the general public, students, school teachers, businesspersons and extension agent audiences; and presented our research findings at professional/scientific meetings via presentations and a poster to researchers, farmers, and policy makers. Specific events and audiences targeted included an extension workshop targeting the public interested in learning about aquaponics. We also presented information from our project to entrepreneurs at the AU Food Entrepreneur workshop (120 attendees) and at an Extension Aquaponics workshop (55 attendees). Our graduate students present to scientific audiences at the World Aquaculture Society meeting (75 attendees) and also at a workshop hosted by the AU World Hunger Institute (45 attendees). We presented a project poster describing the project's component parts at an AU 'This is Research' event with over 1,200 AU researchers in attendance and at a Farm Bureau meeting with over 300 attendees. In addition, we have toured over 300 students, public, businesspersons, etc. through our integrated fish-plant-algae facility at Auburn University. Changes/Problems:We will develop two additional full-size greenhouses (33' x 96') which will be primarily tasked to "commercial" vegetable production. This will effectively triple our plant material output on the nutrient stream produced by the currently sized fish production greenhouse. Fish production will be pushed to become more economically sustainable within the physical resources currently present. Campus Dining has agreed to provide assistance in processing and placement of both fish and vegetable products. In our proposal, we requested funding for a M.S. horticulture graduate student to conduct research on improving efficiencies of vegetable production in our aquaponics system. We recruited an undergraduate student, who was involved with the previously reported substrate/density experiment, as a M.S. candidate to begin in Fall 2017. The student was committed to the project and was doing good work, but unfortunately changed his mind less than a month before the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester and decided to not pursue a M.S. degree. We began recruiting a replacement student as quickly as possible, but were unable to fill the position for Fall 2017. We have an excellent student who is scheduled to begin her research project in Spring 2018. We realize that puts us behind on our proposed timeline, so it is likely that we will request an extension to finish all the plant-related experiments we have planned. We have been able to conduct the research thus far using undergraduate students and our system manager, but a fully committed graduate student will be crucially important for the remainder of our work to be completed. One problem in approach is that preliminary results suggest a low yield of lactic acid from fermentation of tilapia solid wastes alone. This was unexpected, as fermentation of other fish solid wastes (for example, from catfish wastes from pond aquaculture, performed at a preliminary stage by the authors) shows relatively high yields of LA. However, measurements of the elemental composition of the tilapia fish waste solids suggests a high level of nitrogen, which is useful as a nutrient source to support the SSF fermentation process. A proposed change in approach is to investigate the fermentation of a mixture of tilapia waste solids with waste cellulosic biomass sourced from plant growth activities within the aquaponics system. For example, a high amount of waste biomass is produced as leaves and vines for cucumber growth in the vegetable cultivation, and these might be processed and used as a carbon feedstock for lactic acid fermentation and production. A series of experiments are planned to investigate this approach, assessing the tilapia waste as a nutrient source and assessing cellulosic biomass as a carbon feedstock for SSF processes for LA yield. In the microbiological bacterial population analysis, some water samples were very cloudy and it was difficult to use the EPA Method 1603: Escherichia coli (E. coli) in Water by Membrane Filtration Using Modified membrane-Thermotolerant Escherichia coli Agar (Modified mTEC) method to isolate E. coli. Thus, we used the 3M PetriFilm® E. coli/coliform plates as an alternative method to isolate E. coli and coliforms. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A full range of training and professional development for students, professors, extension personnel and teachers has been provided by this particular science and technology from its initiation at Auburn University. In this project, we have broadened our scope to include scientists "across disciplines" to now include Horticulture, Bio-Systems and Food Science professors and students. - Two undergraduate research opportunities were provided. 1) A senior student in Biosystems Engineering at Auburn University successfully attained a funded proposal from the Auburn University Office of Undergraduate Research to investigate nitrogen dynamics within the aquaponics system. In this research, Ms. Bankston successfully characterized the seasonal variation of the solid waste produced in the system. These results inform future planning for experiments in fermentation and digestion of solid wastes from the system. 2) A second undergraduate student was involved with the horticulture cucumber substrate/density experiment that required working with the tilapia production and effluent as well. - A Master's level graduate student is involved in the food safety aspect of the integrated fish-plant system and is learning bacteria identification in a laboratory setting and sampling protocols in the fish tanks, delivery lines, plant buckets and out-fluent analysis. - A Ph.D. level graduate student is involved in the economic, tilapia and horticulture aspects of this project and learning the details of each component to operate the entire system successfully. - One post-doctoral research and training is provided. A post-doctorate was hired, using matching funds from the Dean's office in the College of Agriculture at Auburn University. Dr. Shi is gaining training in aquaculture and aquaponics management and wastewater treatment as he pursues research and experimentation in fermentation of solids wastes from the aquaponics operations. - One professional is involved in the routine operations of the system, such as marketing, transportation/delivery of product, and labor force development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination of findings, results and on-going work is continual. While a broad suite of more formal conferences, workshops and meetings are held annually, professional development for students, visitors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, etc. are more informal but are continual. Additionally, occasional articles are published in popular media, which feature this project area. Several presentations at conferences have been performed detailing the system and research results attained thus far: Mollie Smith, Ph.D. student and system manager, presented the horticulture plant density and substrate research to fellow researchers, students and policy makers at the 2017 World Aquaculture Society meetings in San Antonio, Texas. Citation: Smith, M.R., D. Wells, T. Hanson, J. Chappell and D. Blersch. 2017. "Aquaponic Tilapia / Cucumber Production Varying Plant Density and Substrate." Presented at the "Forging New Frontiers Aquaculture America 2017 Conference, San Antonio, TX, Feb 19-22. Elizabeth Bankston presented at the Auburn University This is Research Student Symposium in April 2017, benefitting the student population at Auburn through informing of the project and initial results of the project. Citation is Bankston, E., Blersch, D. 2017. Following the mass flow of nitrogen throughout an aquaponics system. Poster Presentation, This is Research Student Symposium, Auburn University, April 2017. Dr. David Blersch presented at the American Ecological Engineering Society annual conference in June 2017, in Athens, Georgia, benefitting the research and practitioner population of ecological engineers through informing of project goals and initial results. Citation is Blersch, D., J. Litton, J. Chappell, T. Hanson, M. Smith, and D. Wells. 2017. Building a research-scale aquaponics system: Recovering nutrients for food production. Oral presentation at the 2017 American Ecological Engineering Society Meeting, May 23-25, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Drs. Tung-Shi Huang and Jean Weese presented on the "Microbial Quality of Tilapia Tank Water for Produce Production" at the 6th Global Summit on Aquaculture and Fisheries. Osaka, Japan, May 25-26, 2017. Project PIs presented at an Extension meeting in Cullman, Alabama that included topics related to aquaponic systems, such as history, fish culture, plant culture, integration, scale, intensification, economics and how-to-get started. Project PIs presented a poster to an AU 'This is Research' symposium of over 1,200 AU faculty and researchers. Citation: Hanson, T., D. Blersch, J. Chappell, D. Wells, T. Huang and M. Smith. 2016. "Improving Aquaculture's Value through Enhanced Nutrient Management." Poster presented at Auburn University's 'This Is Research - Faculty Symposium 2016, A Showcase of Research and Creative Scholarship.' September 16, Auburn University, Auburn, AL. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?First, we plan to continue what we are doing in outreach, training, counseling, professional development and exposure of the technology to interested parties and media. We plan to expand our offerings of food products (fish and vegetables) to Auburn students through "Campus Dining". Further, we plan to develop and offer a detailed aquaponics "short course" designed for entrepreneurs, farmers, businesspersons, food purveyors, etc., and to apply the technology in an economically sustainable way. Secondly, we will continue the collection of input, output data for economic cash flow and enterprise budget development and adapt it to a commercial scale that will be useful to interested entrepreneurs and researchers. We will use this information as a section in an extension publication, for a professional society meeting presentation and in the aquaponics short course. Third, we plan to continue with greenhouse vegetable experiments in the coming reporting period. A current experiment is focused on the effects of duration in the greenhouse on plant health, plant yield, and system profitability. We will also begin a new round of experiments focused on improving nutrient use efficiencies of the aquaponics system through injection of selected fertilizer salts and through acidifying fish effluent. Fourth, the plan is to continue with fermentation experiments to investigate the use of tilapia solid waste as a nutrient source in the SSF of other lignocellulosic biomass. Other waste biomass is produced and will be sourced from the plant growth operations in the aquaponics facility, and these may be processed into feedstock for fermentation processes to LA. A series of experiments are planned to investigate the LA yield from a mixture of Tilapia waste and other lignocellulosic biomass. Once these yield numbers are known, an economic assessment of LA fermentation using different waste streams as sources for both nutrients and carbon feedstock will be performed. These results will be disseminated through production of research manuscripts to aquaculture journals, presentations at national conferences for both aquaculture and agricultural engineering, and production of an extension publication document for guidance on LA fermentation of aquaculture production wastes. Fifth, we will continue collecting microbial population data to have a full year's worth of data. The data will be used to analyze the microbial population change from tilapia tank effluent water through greenhouse to environment. The temperature, type of soil used in green house, and produce varieties will be included in the analysis to understand their effect to microbial population change.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our accomplishments for the first year of the project, by component, follow. 1. Economic Component A detailed cash flow of all physical and value of individual inputs and outputs has been conducted since before this project began (October 2015) to present. Output item quantities and receipts are for tilapia, cucumber and cherry tomato sold to three outlet types. Input quantity and cost items for tilapia production include fish feed, fingerlings, labor, water, electricity, chemicals, supplies, wood pellets (winter heating), and items for vegetable production include seedlings, growing supplies, labor, plant root substrate, chemicals, propane gas, electricity. Common input items to fish and plant production include potassium chloride, calcium chloride, truck gas/servicing and maintenance/repair needs. This is providing us with specific costs by enterprise (tilapia, cucumber, tomato) and as an integrated enterprise. Cash flows developed were used to guide and produce enterprise budgets and analyses for the combined enterprises and separately for the fish and vegetable produce. In the combined enterprise budget for the first year of operation, there was a negative net return, with the fish net return being twice as negative as the vegetable net return. However, these returns are raw data and have not been adjusted to reflect commercial operations and outputs, which would likely be much more efficient and will be considered in year 2. Below in the Horticulture, Bioengineering and Food Safety results sections experimental results are affecting our economic analyses of these integrated systems and the multiple use of the initial fish feed input and will be developed more fully in year two. 2. Horticulture Component - Aquaponic tilapia/cucumber production varying plant density and substrate Cucumbers (Socrates variety) are a popular hydroponic/aquaponic greenhouse vegetable, especially using commercial type strategies where production space is at a premium. By planting more plants per square foot, growers could potentially double production within the same greenhouse footprint. Also, the standard substrate for cucumbers production in Dutch buckets has been perlite, an expensive obsidian rock product. By contrast, pine bark is an inexpensive, abundant and locally available material, at least in the Southeast US. Thus, increasing plant density and substituting pine bark for perlite in the greenhouse production of cucumbers could reduce costs and increase returns to this element of the enterprise. This project integrated tilapia and cucumber production to supply Auburn University Dining Services with fresh, locally grown products for their student cafeterias. In mid-October, eight weeks prior to planting cucumbers, one 12' x 88' raceway was stocked in with 11,000 tilapia fingerlings averaging 100g each. Fish were fed a 40% CP feed until reaching a 150g weight, then protein was reduced 36%. A total of 3,742 lb of 450g tilapia ($7,484) were harvested from January through August 2016. Approximately 500 gallons per day of fish effluent was directed to the plant greenhouse cucumber production. A 36-week density-substrate factorial experiment was conducted with cucumbers in a greenhouse using fish effluent as the sole water-nutrient source. One experimental block included cucumber transplants being planted in Dutch buckets with either pine bark or perlite substrate at a density of one or two plants per bucket with 15 replicates per treatment. The greenhouse was divided into 5 experimental blocks, each containing a total of 60 spaces or Dutch buckets, broken into 4 equal rows of 15 plants with a randomized placement. Cucumbers from the central 5 plants of each row were counted and weighed individually. Each experimental block stayed at least 50 days and no experimental block stayed more than 100 days. Substrate type did not affect cumulative fruit number or cumulative fruit weight. However, increasing the planting density from 2.1 to 4.2 plants·m-2 increased cumulative fruit number and cumulative fruit weight by 60% (33 to 53 fruits·plot-1) and 53% (7,944 g to 12,193 g·plot-1), respectively. Growth rate was not affected by either substrate type or planting density. There was also no treatment effect on uptake of N, P, K, Mg, Ca, or Fe. Planting density was the only experimental factor that affected cucumber fruit production. Substrate had no effect on growth rate, fruit yield, or nutrient status of cucumber plants grown in this system. The cost of pine bark in the southeastern U.S. averages approximately $15·m-3 while horticultural grade perlite costs approximately 400% more ($75·m-3). A 400% savings on substrate materials may significantly reduce variable costs of aquaponics operations. After 36 weeks, cucumbers planted at a density of two plants per Dutch bucket had significantly higher total yields than cucumbers planted at a density of one plant per bucket. Total yields from cucumbers planted in pine bark showed no statistical differences from total yields from cucumber plants planted in perlite. These preliminary results indicate that 'Socrates' cucumbers, co-cultivated with Nile tilapia in a decoupled aquaponics system using drip-pass through dutch bucket culture, should be planted in aged pine bark at 4.2 plants·m-2 (2 plants per bucket). Maximum yields and decreased production costs will help aquaponics growers realize profits more quickly. 3. Biosystems Engineering During this report period, we tested the lactic acid fermentation of the Tilapia solid waste, collected from the solids settling tanks for the tilapia aquaculture tanks. Simultaneous Saccharificiaton and Fermentation (SSF) was applied during the fermentation process, and two different levels of solid loading were performed, 5% and 7.5%, to test the effect of solids loading on ultimate yield. The final lactic acid (LA) concentration after 96-hour fermentation was found to be 4.1 and 5.6 g/L respectively, which are relatively low yields compared to other biomass SSF processes. These low levels of LA yield are generally not satisfactory for economical downstream separation and purification. However, characterization of the tilapia waste shows a relatively high nitrogen content, suggesting its potential use as a nutrient supplement for SSF of other biomass. 4. Food Safety Within our analyses of water and plant materials, we found around 65 CFU/mL of E. coli and thousands per milliliter of coliform in the effluent water from the tilapia tank in November 2016, which is a very low population and not harmful to humans. The populations of bacteria declined dramatically from the fall to winter period. E. coli was not found in the effluent waters of the tilapia tank and greenhouse from January to mid-April while fish were present and continued to grow. Further, after the water passed through the plant greenhouse and cucumber production systems, bacteria presence in the water was reduced slightly. The pine bark plant-supporting medium contained higher E. coli and coliform populations than those counts found from the perlite medium; however, the microbial levels were very low and not harmful to humans. The cucumber and tomato plants did not make the differences of E. coli and coliform populations in their growth supporting media.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Smith, M.R., D. Wells, T. Hanson, J. Chappell and D. Blersch. 2017. Aquaponic Tilapia / Cucumber Production Varying Plant Density and Substrate. Presented at the Forging New Frontiers Aquaculture America 2017 Conference, San Antonio, TX, Feb 19-22.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Tung-Shi Huang and Jean Weese. Microbial Quality of Tilapia Tank Water for Produce Production. Presented at 6th Global Summit on Aquaculture and Fisheries. Osaka, Japan, May 25-26, 2017.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Hanson, T., D. Blersch, J. Chappell, D. Cline and M. Smith. 2017. Components of Aquaponic Systems. Presented at The Aquaponics Workshop, Cullman, AL, April 11.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Blersch, D., J. Litton, J. Chappell, T. Hanson, M. Smith, and D. Wells. 2017. Building a research-scale aquaponics system: Recovering nutrients for food production. Oral presentation at the 2017 American Ecological Engineering Society Meeting, May 23-25, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Bankston, E., Blersch, D. 2017. Following the mass flow of nitrogen throughout an aquaponics system. Poster Presentation, This is Research Student Symposium, Auburn University, April, 2017.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hanson, T., D. Blersch, J. Chappell, D. Wells, T. Huang and M. Smith. 2016. Improving Aquacultures Value through Enhanced Nutrient Management. Poster presented at Auburn Universitys This Is Research Faculty Symposium 2016, A Showcase of Research and Creative Scholarship. September 16, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
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