Acronym ALFA
Category
Aquaculture
Title Development of an automated innovative system for continuous live feed production in aquaculture hatchery units Programme FP6
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP6 - SMEs-Co-operative Research Contract
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
Specific Research Activities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source European Coordinator Patrick White Coordinator email pwhitemobile@yahoo.com
Coordinator institution
Akvaplan-niva - Akvaplan-niva AS (Norway)
Institutions involved
AUA - Agricultural University of Athens (Greece) ,
NA - Argosaronikos Fish Farming SA (Greece) ,
NA - Hesy Bergambacht BV (Netherlands) ,
RACTI - Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (Greece) ,
NA - SagaFjord Sea Farm AS (Norway) ,
NA - Sagro Aquaculture Ltd (Cyprus) ,
UiB - University of Bergen (Norway) ,
NA - Viveiro Vila Nova SA (Portugal) ,
Start year 2005 End year 2007 Funding (€) € 1,657,222 Website https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/512789 Summary The proposed project aims at developing an innovative fully automated system for the continuous production of phytoplankton (algae) as live feed in aquaculture hatcheries. This system will guarantee optimal microclimatic and nutritional conditions for the stable growth of algae by using both natural and artificial illumination and controlling the temperature, the nutrient content, the pH and the CO2 concentration of the water.
The production system of phytoplankton (algae) is an important component of a hatchery. Algae are used for feeding both fry and other live food (rotifers and Artemia). The project aimed at developing an intensive, fully controlled continuous algae production system, to reduce the cost of algae production and improve its quality. A second objective of this research was to integrate the algae bioreactor into other hatchery production modules by the developing an automated, reliable, and cost effective harvesting and transferring system, temporary storage and distribution system. This allowed automatic monitoring and control of the live feed production for intensive marine fish hatcheries in Mediterranean and Northern Europe. By automatically controlling density and increasing the volume of production, algae can be grown at the log phase of growth which provides hatchery operators with live food of higher quality and at a lower cost in comparison to traditional techniques (e.g. effective system for algae production and subsequently for the live feed production components depending on it). Specifically, the objectives were the: (1) Development of photobioreactor for the continuous production of algae for aquaculture hatcheries taking into account locally adapted strains and local climatic conditions; (2) Integration of the algae reactor with continuous rotifer production systems in the hatcheries; (3) Development collection and storage unit for short to medium-term conservation of the live algae so that the excess production can be stored or sold to smaller hatcheries; (4) Development of a computerised transfer system for algae to the other components of the hatchery and/or the storage unit.
Keywords
Fish;
Engineering;
Land-based aquaculture;
Larval rearing;
Prototype;
Technology;
Marine Region
45
Southern Adriatic Sea (GSA 18)
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
2
Marine Region Map
