Floating Solar Powered Aeration System for Aquaculture

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food production system for the past decade. However, due to pollution from human activities including agricultural runoff, urban and suburban runoff, wastewater treatment plants and air pollution, the quality and quantity of aquatic animals and ecosystem are at risk. In some areas the pollution is to the extent that aquatic animals can no longer survive. The major objective of our floating solar aeration system is not only to improve water quality but also to have these systems be self-sufficient through solar power, and to specifically target critical organism habitat on a smaller, more practical scale. A particular example of this targeted approach would be for commercial aquaculture, where supplemental dissolved oxygen is needed to overcome the dissolved oxygen consumed through the breakdown of wastes that accumulate through concentrated animal feeding. The floating solar aeration system will consider critical parameters important for aquaculture setting including water temperature, stocking density, and feed. As low stocking densities and an absence of adequate dissolved oxygen dramatically decreases profitable aquaculture farming, our technology will be designed to provide continuous aeration by incorporating energy storage to address the intermittent nature of solar power. The technology is expected to produce about 50% excess electricity, which could be supplied to a community. In order to achieve the above objectives, we will design, install and analyze the performance and reliability of the floating solar aeration system. Once the technology is tested and perfected it is expected to revolutionize the application floating solar for aquaculture and water quality improvement. Though immediate focus is in perfecting the reliability of the novel technology, after the completion of the pilot project, we intend to incorporate automation technologies to upgrade to precision farming.