Scientists from the UCA create a system with microalgae that combines water treatment and aquaculture feed production 26 June 2023
Researchers from the University of Cadiz, belonging to the TEP-181 group: Tecnología del Medio Ambiente, have worked on a novel system using microalgae, specifically the species Tetraselmis chui, focused on water treatment and the simultaneous production of ingredients for aquaculture feed.
This paper, published in Journal of Water Process Engineering, studies the use of the biomass of these microalgae grown in a marine fish stream (Senegalese sole) in a recirculating aquaculture facility to remove nutrients and improve the initial composition of the fish feed, following the circular economy strategy. To this end, this research group studied the entire process: the kinetics of microalgae biomass growth were obtained in an open-air pilot-scale reactor, the quality of the effluent after microalgae harvesting was analysed, the quality of the biomass was assessed, two experimental feeds were formulated by adding 10% and 20% of microalgae biomass (replacing fishmeal by 15-25%) and, finally, feeding trials were carried out.