Digitizing Aquaculture: from predictive analytics to intelligent photonics platform
Starting date: 01-01-2022
Duration in months: 36
Requested funding: 249.844,18€
The main goals related with this project are GOAL 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture; GOAL 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; GOAL 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. These goals are related with the novel and innovative technology to ensure food security, sustainable industrialization/innovation, protection of the oceans and wellbeing of species proposed in DigiAqua.
The technology to be developed in DigiAqua targets an important biotechnology industry, specifically to create innovative biosensing, novel modalities and new understandings to support European commercial innovation to preserve the fish well-being and food quality for the humans in line with objectives from the 2030 Agenda goals of EU for sustainable aquaculture. Thus, this technology can contribute to accelerate the development of intensive aquaculture, allowing the achievement of the goals set by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2030 to provide 60% of the fish consumed by man.
Recirculating Aquaculture Systems have been the protein production sector with the biggest growth in the world requiring high-tech progress. Aquaculture in tanks brings complex dynamics between the number of fishes, water quality and their wellbeing. Recirculation Aquaculture Systems are used for intensive fish production where water exchange is limited with economic and security-related benefits. When fishes are stressed (producing high levels of stress hormone that is not monitored in real-time nor in-situ due to the lack of technology) due to sub-optimal rearing conditions, it affects growth, feeding and feed conversion ratio drop and leading to high costs and production loss.
On the other hand, very little is understood about how small plastic particles can influence the fish growth, fish welfare and consequently food quality for the humans, being crucial to start exploring novel mechanisms for critical points since there are no solutions for detection/monitoring the sub-micro and nanoplastics, where the existing ones are for large dimension (>1µm). In addition, these small plastic particles transport pathogenic bacteria that grow on it.
At this moment, removal protocol of such small plastic particles is still missing. The goal of DigiAqua is to bring novel modalities, understandings and sustainable high-tech for such challenge in order to bring new knowledge and new lines of research in protein production through the sustainable aquaculture sector.
WP1 - Management and Dissemination
It encompasses the technical aspects/specifications dealt with all the related entities and dissemination of research results to the scientific community and general public.
WP2 - Technology for sub-MP/NP sampling/removal
Achieve accurate sampling, identification and further removal of sub-MP/NP in filtered water samples in a wide range (are collected after solid filtering system). Explore new photonic approaches and materials for in-situ sampling/removal.
WP3 - Technology development for bacteria detection in sub-MP/NP and chemical parameters
It involves design/optimisation of disruptive photonic sensors as sensing elements, functionalization, full opto-chemical characterization and calibration. The goal is to obtain a smart, in situ fiber sensing platform allowing the measurement of different bacteria growth transmitted through the sub-MP/NP) and cortisol concentration, which are not currently possible to achieved. The sensors will be calibrated and validated with data provided from LC-MS/MS technique preceded with solid phase extraction (SPE) for sample cleanup and concentration. The extraction technique will be optimized following multivariate designs of experiments. The bacteria quantification will be carried out by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(ATR FTIR). Results from this WP can lead to sensing optimization and selection for implementation in the pilot test.
WP4 - Instrumentation and Multi-modal data analysis
Alow-cost stand-alone interrogating system, common to all sensors developed in DigiAqua, with wireless data transition (by single-board computer with WiFi module) from the tanks to the control center, will be developed.
Moreover, the team will develop/integrate a unique online platform to correlate all critical parameters via a simple and user-friendly tool. At an initial phase, this platform will be developed and validated offline. The data collected at Safiestela facilities (from CO2, O2, potential redox to N2 or O3 production, etc) will be analysed via statistical models and AI approaches, namely those of the sub-field of machine learning algorithms, in both cases considering unsupervised/supervised methodologies. The first goal is to identify underlying patterns and garner insight from data collected to disclose trends and patterns (historical information). Then, it is intended to develop modelling tools to predict critical events and reduce the fish mortality (forecasting based on fish activity, feeding patterns, sensory data, food particles, and other in real time).
This WP will be a great asset for the platform and will demonstrate the potential of statistical and machine learning forecasting methods (models will include data from new sensors developed in WP2 and WP3). The final goal is to implement a smart farm management tool to cope with all the
sensors/data sources, their complexity and interaction for the benefit of company profitability and competitiveness. It intends new understandings of:
1) fish dynamics,
2) the impact of reduced bacteria/sub-MP/NP presence in the fish welfare .
WP5 - Pilot testing
The objective of this WP is to test the pilot platforms as a new monitoring tool for the land-based fish farming industry. At this stage we will study how the devices react to changing production conditions daily, applying them in our partner – Safiestela SA facilities (SEA8 group).
