Purdue University

Awards Issued Prior to January 20, 2025, Were Funded Under Previous Administrations and May Not Reflect the Priorities and Policies of the Current Administration. Demand for Seafood Has Steadily Increased Due to Increasing Population and Per Capita Consumption. Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) Intensively Produce Aquatic Products; However, Their Operations Require High Energy Input and Create Considerable Nutrient-rich Wastewater, Leading to Significant Environmental Impacts. Using Algae to Treat Wastewater (also Known as Phycoremediation) Can Assimilate Nutrients and Carbon to Produce Algal Biomass for Conversion Into Bioenergy, Leading to the Overarching Goal of This Project: Integrating Ras With Phycoremediation and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) for Nutrient Reuse, Energy Production and Carbon Dioxide Sequestration to Develop an Intensive Aquaculture Production System With Near-zero Emissions. Specific Project Objectives Include: (1) Screening of Algae for Effective Nutrient Removal From Ras Wastewater; (2) Developing Ad Strategies for Algal Biomass, and Wet Scrubber for Air Pollution Mitigation; (3) Kinetic Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment of Integrated Near-zero-emission Aquaculture Production System; (4) Disseminating Project Results and Products to Stakeholders. the Ras-algae-ad Integration Is Expected to Close the Nutrient Loop to a Higher Degree That Can Be Adopted by Smallholder Aquaculture Farmers as a Promising Approach to Reducing Energy Demand and Waste Output. This Novel Aquaculture Production System Features More Efficient Nutrient Use, Reduced Operating Costs, and Improved Environmental Quality, and Thus Will Play a Major Role in Sustainably Enhancing Food Security.