{"id":6289,"date":"2024-05-01T19:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?post_type=purduetoday&p=6289"},"modified":"2024-08-03T11:07:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T15:07:24","slug":"studies-assess-feasibility-of-aquaculture-wastewater-treatment-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q2\/studies-assess-feasibility-of-aquaculture-wastewater-treatment-methods","title":{"rendered":"Studies assess feasibility of aquaculture wastewater treatment methods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.<\/strong> \u2014 Aquaculture production operations that help feed the world\u2019s growing population also generate polluted wastewater that harms the environment. Four studies published by Purdue University scientists since last May document the feasibility of previously unproven methods for successfully treating the wastewater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose wastewaters are not good for the environment because they discharge a large amount of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus,\u201d said\u00a0Jen-Yi Huang<\/a>, associate professor of\u00a0food science<\/a>. These nutrients cause harmful conditions such as oxygen depletion and algae blooms\u00a0when they are discharged into the aquatic environment.\u00a0We want to use microalgae as a wastewater treatment approach. We grow algae in the aquaculture wastewater,\u201d said Huang, who led a study focusing on microbial use of nutrients as a biological wastewater treatment method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Food science professor Jen-Yi Huang leads a team creating a pilot-scale aquaculture system using algae for wastewater treatment. Experiments are underway to determine which algae variety will be most effective for use in this system. (Purdue Agricultural Communications\/Tom Campbell)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Huang\u2019s study appeared in the May 2024 issue<\/a> of Bioresource Technology. Halis Simsek<\/a>, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering<\/a>, led the other three studies. One will be published June 1<\/a> in Environmental Research, and the others were published in the March 15, 2024<\/a>, and Aug. 15, 2023<\/a>, issues of Environmental Pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dozen scientists at Purdue and institutions in Egypt, India and Turkey contributed to the research. All four studies were funded by a $10 million grant<\/a> from the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> National Institute of Food and Agriculture<\/a> aimed at increasing Midwestern seafood production and consumption<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bioresource Technology, Huang and his co-authors presented the results of their life cycle assessment (LCA) on microalgae-based treatments of wastewater from a recirculating aquaculture system for shrimp. The LCA analyzed the environmental impact of the shrimp production process from feed production to wastewater treatment for a commercial farm in Fowler, Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result of this paper provides the proof of concept on an experimental scale,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USDA projects seek to develop zero-waste aquaculture (growing aquatic organisms under controlled conditions) and aquaponics (combining aquaculture with plant cultivation in nutrient-enriched water) systems. \u201cWe want to fully recover the nutrients from the wastewater using microalgae,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to ensure that zero-waste food production is both technically feasible and environmentally sustainable. The latter requires a production system that avoids generating a large environmental footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a trade-off because operating the microalgae wastewater treatment still requires some energy input,\u201d Huang said. \u201cThe LCA evaluated the tradeoff between the nutrient recovery and additional energy input for the algal wastewater treatment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huang\u2019s team found that the microalgae wastewater treatment process is environmentally feasible. Further, the team found that even with the energy requirements factored in, the microalgae treatment works better than the conventional activated-sludge wastewater treatment method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsing the microalgae as the wastewater treatment method can indeed improve the environmental performance of aquaculture production,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three studies by Simsek\u2019s team were conducted at Purdue\u2019s Aquaculture Research Laboratory<\/a>. In two of those studies, the scientists analyzed treating separate tilapia and shrimp wastewater streams with the same four strains of algae and two strains of bacteria.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWastewater always has bacteria,\u201d Simsek said. \u201cWe are using natural bacteria that already exist in the wastewater to remove contaminants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research team measured nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and other parameters in the wastewater during the experiments. These included chemical oxygen demand, a measure of environmentally harmful effluent discharge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll these parameters can be removed in the wastewaters using algae and bacteria together,\u201d Simsek said. The types of algae and bacteria selected for the study are the most commonly occurring natural strains. \u201cEvery wastewater is different,\u201d he noted, meaning that different industrial sectors produce different wastewater and, therefore, may need different treatment methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The March 15 Environmental Pollution study results demonstrated the potential for applying microalgae and native bacteria together for treating larger-scale tilapia wastewater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2023 study, Simsek and his co-authors evaluated electrocoagulation (EC) and electrooxidation (EO) treatments of shrimp wastewater, both separately and together. EC and EO, widely used methods for treating agricultural and other types of wastewaters, remove pollutants via electricity to drive chemical reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also applied a modeling approach often used to determine optimal factors that affect the electrochemical method.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe results of the study show EC and EO processes are potentially beneficial for the treatment of aquaculture wastewater,\u201d Simsek and his co-authors wrote. They suggested larger-scale testing of EC and EO for the treatment to reduce toxic environmental effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe developed treatment system combined with other treatment methods could be useful to treat various types of wastewaters throughout the world, which can help support the development of the zero-waste policy,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huang and Simsek contributed to all four papers, along with professor Paul Brown<\/a> and postdoctoral research associate Aya Hussain<\/a>, both in forestry and natural resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Aquaculture production operations that help feed the world\u2019s growing population also generate polluted wastewater that harms the environment. Four studies published by Purdue University scientists since last May document the feasibility of previously unproven methods for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"department":[6],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-6289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-research-excellence","department-agriculture","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7635,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions\/7635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}