Auburn University
IN-3: Innovation 3

Auburn’s Aquaculture Initiative is a collaboration involving Campus Dining, Horticulture and Fisheries that highlights alternative, more sustainable growing methods. Currently, tilapia are growing in a tank that provides water and nutrients to a hydroponic greenhouse, where cucumbers are being grown. This particular design minimizes power usage by utilizing an air lift system, that operates like a siphon, to perform some of the filtering for the tilapia tank without using an electric pump. In addition, water use is optimized in the closed loop system. The real innovation, however, is in how the fish are harvested. Normal aquaculture operations done in ponds or tanks, in a commercial environment, harvest all of their fish at once and truck them to a processor where they are frozen and shipped out to the market. The AU system is set up to produce fish for weekly consumption, so that the fish can be harvested in small batches, processed locally, never frozen, and served fresh. This eliminates the carbon emissions needed to ship the fish hundreds of miles, freeze them, and then keep them frozen. It also shows that when you produce and harvest locally the end user gets a higher quality product. In addition to being able to provide campus dining facilities with the freshest possible fish, Auburn researchers are utilizing the water from the tanks to grow algae that is being studied as an alternative fuel source. Ultimately the system is a showcase of how farming can be done in a smaller footprint with less energy usage and provide high-value, nutrient-dense foods that consumers love to eat.

The project is projected to meet 100% of campus demand for tilapia, and supplements a portion of the cucumber demand on campus. Future plans for scaling the system include adding a variety of vegetables to supplement demand from campus dining operations. The project funds a graduate research assistantship position that oversees the operation of the system, and allows for research into system efficiencies and alternative fuels. Future plans include additional research on nutrition and fish/vegetable combinations, as well as working with Extension to utilize the AU system as a aquaculture model for Alabama farmers.