Fiber Turntable Filter for Aquaculture Water Purification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current recirculating aquaculture systems face challenges in efficiently removing large particles and harvesting microalgae, which affects the stability and water quality of the system, as they require high light intensity and regular harvesting, conflicting with fish preferences and system operations.
Innovation Solution
A recirculation aquaculture system incorporating a fiber turntable filtering system with two filters of different pore diameters (15-30 μm and 1-5 μm) allows for the separation and interception of microalgae and large particles, enabling their separate handling and management, with the first filter allowing microalgae to return to the pond and the second filter intercepting them for harvesting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If large algae and aquatic plants are cultured in situ to remove N and P, then water quality is improved, but light intensity requirements conflict with fish preferences and harvesting stability becomes difficult to ensure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the particle removal function into multiple stages with different pore sizes (10-50μm for large particles, 1-5μm for microalgae). This segmentation allows separate handling of different particle types, enabling stable microalgae harvesting while maintaining water quality improvement benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts microalgae from the recirculating water using the fine-pore filter (1-5μm) and collects them separately for harvesting. This extraction enables regular harvesting of microalgae without affecting the fish culture environment and ensures stable N and P removal capacity.
2Productivity
If microalgae are cultured to transform nitrogen and phosphorus, then nutrient removal efficiency is improved, but regular harvesting becomes difficult which affects system stability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical filtration systems with a fiber turntable filter that uses fiber bundle structure and rotational motion. The turntable rotation combined with fiber elasticity enables automatic particle accumulation and periodic discharge, achieving reliable microalgae harvesting that maintains system stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a system where microalgae are continuously filtered out and accumulated on the fiber turntable, then periodically discharged for harvesting. This discarding and recovering mechanism ensures regular harvesting while maintaining continuous nutrient removal efficiency.
3Ease of operation
If conventional filtration is used to remove particles, then large particles are removed, but microalgae harvesting is not achieved and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs a universal fiber turntable filter that can handle multiple particle sizes through a two-stage configuration. The same basic filter structure with different pore sizes (10-50μm and 1-5μm) performs both large particle removal and microalgae harvesting, reducing overall system complexity compared to multiple specialized filters.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the filtration and harvesting functions into a single integrated fiber turntable system. The filter simultaneously removes large particles and accumulates microalgae on its surface, then periodically discharges both types of particles through the same mechanism, simplifying the overall system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system effectively removes large particles and microalgae, improving water quality, reducing sludge and backwashing water, and allowing for high-density, stable fish aquaculture with low energy consumption, while utilizing microalgae for nutrient conversion and biomass production.
Implementation Method 1
a filter cloth in the first fiber turntable filter has a pore diameter of 15-30 μm; a filter cloth in the second fiber turntable filter has a pore diameter of 1-5 μm
Implementation Method 2
The microalgae can transform, through photosynthesis, inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients such as NH4+—N, NH3—N, NO2−—N, NO3−—N, and PO43−—P into substances of algae cells
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides a recirculation aquaculture system and method. The system includes a fish pond and a fiber turntable filtering system. The fiber turntable filtering system can implement can remove large particles in aquaculture water and regularly harvest microalgae, water quality after treatment reaches a fishery aquaculture standard, and 97% of the aquaculture water can be directly recycled. In the present disclosure, during in-situ culture of microalgae and fish, microalgae can convert CO2 exhaled by fish and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the aquaculture water into substances of algae cells, such as proteins, polysaccharides, vitamins, and lipids, and release oxygen, so as to quickly improve quality of the aquaculture water; in-situ culture of the microalgae and the fish gives play to the advantages of high photosynthetic efficiency of the microalgae, and the fast-growing microalgae provide a suitable growth environment for the fish.