Aquaponic Integration and Automation – A Critical Evaluation

Aquaponics is technology developed from the aquaculture industry that integrates intensive farming of fish and utilizes plants (integrates hydroponics) in a continuous closed loop to clean the water for the fish. The plants clean the water of nitrate (waste form is initially ammonia) which has been converted into a form that is not toxic to fish by bacteria and is accessible to plants. Hydroponics technology is a technique used to grow plants and vegetables that does not incorporate soil, but nutrients that are dissolved in water and plants are either floated or treated with a nutrient film delivered to the roots by a variety of processes. These technologies are becoming more popular with communities and governments as the preservation of water becomes more of an issue in environments where water is becoming restricted in supply and has to be supplemented by mechanical means such as desalination, which comes at additional cost to consumers. The technologies have had a great amount of research interest to find parametres and ranges that the systems require to function successfully yet also remain productive with certain crop varieties. The successful diversification of crop varieties could increase the viability of commercial aquaponics, which could be achieved with the use of optimized advanced process control strategies.