A Simulation Analysis of a Microalgal-Production Plant for the Transformation of Inland-Fisheries Wastewater in Sustainable Feed

Janet B García-Martínez,Antonio Zuorro,Germán L López-Barrera,Diana M Ibarra-Mojica,Jefferson E Contreras-Ropero,Andrés F Barajas-Solano,Viatcheslav Kafarov,Néstor A Urbina-Suarez,Crisóstomo Barajas-Ferreira

doi:10.3390/w14020250

Abstract

The present research evaluates the simulation of a system for transforming inland-fisheries wastewater into sustainable fish feed using Designer® software. The data required were obtained from the experimental cultivation of Chlorella sp. in wastewater supplemented with N and P. According to the results, it is possible to produce up to 11,875 kg/year (31.3 kg/d) with a production cost of up to 18 (USD/kg) for dry biomass and 0.19 (USD/bottle) for concentrated biomass. Similarly, it was possible to establish the kinetics of growth of substrate-dependent biomass with a maximum production of 1.25 g/L after 15 days and 98% removal of available N coupled with 20% of P. It is essential to note the final production efficiency may vary depending on uncontrollable variables such as climate and quality of wastewater, among others.

Highlights

Published: 16 January 2022Aquaculture is the world’s fastest-expanding food-production sector, accounting for more than half of all fish consumed by humans [1], surpassing catch-fisheries production by 18.32 million tons, with a total value over USD 250 billion [2]
The results show the deviation between experimental through simulation, which establishes a reliable point for the optimization of the different and theoretical data is relatively low
0 and 120 h, at which time the cells had a process of adaptation to the available resources within the medium established in the experiment. Once this stage was completed, exponential growth began with approximately 360 h, reaching its maximum doubling rate of

Summary

Introduction

Published: 16 January 2022Aquaculture is the world’s fastest-expanding food-production sector, accounting for more than half of all fish consumed by humans [1], surpassing catch-fisheries production by 18.32 million tons, with a total value over USD 250 billion [2]. Once considered a sustainable solution to fight malnutrition in low-income economies [3,4], its global growth has increased the demand for feed and water and generated new problems, such as high levels of untreated liquid and solid wastes [5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion