DeSludge – Microbiological treatment for fish farming effluents and hydroponic horticulture

Title

DeSludge – Microbiological treatment for fish farming effluents and hydroponic horticulture

Duration

19 September 2019 / 19 March 2020

VIDA Challenges

Sustainable Aquaculture

Summary

Aquaculture sludges – mechanically extracted fish faeces and uneaten fish feed – are source of nutrients that can be used in biological water treatment and as fertilizers for agriculture and horticulture. The DeSludge project aims to validate a new bioreactor design which uses aquaculture sludges to reduce nitrogen loads in fish farming waters and at the same time, produce a water effluent rich in nutrients that can be used in hydroponic fertigation. The validation trials will look into the reactor’s nitrogen removal and sludge thickening performance and the proximate composition of the reactor effluent, including the detection of bacterial metabolites with known plant-growth promoting effects. The trials will be undertaken in collaboration with Wageningen Greenhouse Horticulture in a semi commercial recirculating aquaculture system located at the facilities of Wageningen Greenhouse Horticulture in Bleiswijk, The Netherlands. Final results will be expected by February 2020.