A Sustainable Energy Model for Shrimp Farms in the Mekong Delta

Abstract

Shrimp farming has been rising significantly not only around the world but also in Vietnam. The shrimp industry in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam makes a substantial contribution to national economy via exporting to foreign countries. Nevertheless, the shrimp aquaculture sector requires high energy for aeration systems to maintain suitable dissolved oxygen level in ponds continuously for improving water quality and promoting shrimp growth. The designs of mechanical aerators have been amended to save energy costs and increase oxygen transfer; moreover, their operation is optimized to reduce operational costs, and renewable energy has been recently started applying to power aerators to mitigate energy security and environmental impacts. However, electric motors driving aerators inherently consume a lot of power, leading to high operational costs and potential impacts from using conventional power resources. In order to attain economical production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the sustainable energy model for shrimp farms is proposed in this paper. The energy model exploits renewable energy to power the advanced aeration system for shrimp ponds, which might produce the onsite oxygen while the by-product hydrogen is stored and might be used to regenerate electricity to compensate imbalance when power load demand is higher than renewable power sources. The optimal design for renewable power resources according to the oxygen consumption of shrimp and the optimal operation of innovative aeration system based on the changes of dissolved oxygen at ponds are presented elaborately with the main objectives being economical and environmentally sustainable production for shrimp farms.