I-Corps: High Intensity pulsed light for the removal of off-flavor compounds in aquaculture effluents

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a new technology to increase the production of an aquaculture enterprise by reducing fish mortality and producing higher quality farmed fish. Aquaculture industries are increasingly concerned with seafood with off-flavor compounds (aromatic byproducts of microbial metabolism) that are concentrated during intensive recirculating aquaculture and during bioaccumulation in the tissues of fishes. These compounds confer undesirable muddy tastes and smells. Off-flavor compounds in seafood drastically lowers market prices, thus, large commercial aquaculture facilities place fish into secondary processes (depuration) to lower the concentration of these compounds by fasting the fish in clean water that is discarded. This practice results in dramatically higher water use and expense, delays in getting product to market, and increased operational costs. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a high intensity pulsed light lamp for disinfection of recirculating aquaculture water, municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, and runoff water. The technology can also be used for preventing off-flavor in farmed fish. This technology is more effective for water disinfection than comparable ultraviolet (UV) technologies and is positioned to eliminate off-flavor compounds from aquaculture effluents, an increasing concern for salmon and other land-based, intensive recirculating aquaculture producers. The novelty of the system is that it delivers germicidal UV and full-spectrum light in a more powerful manner than the typical low power mercury UV lamps currently used. This technology contains inert Xenon gas, limiting the possibility of a lamp break. Additionally, the lamp runs "naked" in the water without a surrounding flow tube used in current UV systems. The ability to omit the surrounding flow tube puts the lamp in direct contact with the water, improving efficiency. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.