Self-Cleaning Burrowing Shellfish Cultivation Device With Glass-Bead Substrate
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing burrowing shellfish cultivation technologies face challenges with substrate pollution and difficulty in cleaning sediment substrates, leading to water quality degradation and shellfish mortality due to the accumulation of pollutants like sulfides, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrites, with no effective replacement for sediment substrates.
Innovation Solution
A self-cleaning cultivation device using a glass bead substrate with a serpentine gas delivery pipe, exhaust pipes, and automated cleaning mechanisms, including a PLC-controlled air pump and solenoid valves, to remove feces and leftover baits efficiently, maintaining water quality and reducing labor costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sediment substrate is used for burrowing shellfish cultivation, then the substrate provides activity base, attachment point, shelter, and nutrients, but the substrate becomes polluted with feces, leftover baits, and harmful substances like sulfides and ammonia nitrogen, leading to water quality degradation and shellfish mortality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful pollutants from the cultivation system by implementing a drainage system with drain pipes that remove feces, leftover baits, and polluted water from the substrate. This separation of waste from the cultivation environment directly addresses the pollutant accumulation problem while maintaining the beneficial functions of the substrate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary drainage system between the substrate and the water column. The drain pipes act as intermediaries that facilitate the removal of harmful substances without directly contacting or contaminating the substrate, thus protecting the cultivation environment while enabling waste removal.
2Productivity
If sediment substrate is used in industrialized cultivation, then the substrate supports high-density cultivation, but the substrate is not easy to clean and disinfect, leading to increased labor costs and time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cleaning and disinfection operations from manual labor by implementing an automated drainage system. The drain pipes enable mechanical removal of pollutants through controlled water flow, transforming the cleaning process from manual to automated, thus improving ease of operation while maintaining high-density cultivation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The drainage system enables the cultivation device to clean itself automatically. By using controlled water flow through the drain pipes, the system performs self-cleaning without requiring external manual intervention, thereby improving operational ease while supporting high-density cultivation.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If traditional cleaning methods are used, then some pollutant removal is achieved, but the cleaning process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, reducing cultivation efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous pollutant removal through the drainage system. The drain pipes enable ongoing elimination of feces, leftover baits, and harmful substances without interruption, transforming the cleaning process from periodic and labor-intensive to continuous and automated, thus reducing cleaning time while maintaining effective pollutant removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated drainage system performs self-cleaning operations continuously without requiring external manual intervention. The system maintains itself by automatically removing pollutants through controlled water flow, thereby reducing both cleaning time and labor requirements while ensuring effective pollutant removal.
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
The device maintains a healthy cultivation environment by effectively removing impurities, reducing disease occurrence, and promoting high-density cultivation with recyclable glass beads, enhancing cultivation economy.
Implementation Method 1
inputting air into the serpentine gas delivery pipe when the air pump works, exhausting gas through the exhaust pipes at the top of the serpentine gas delivery pipe, blowing the feces and the leftover baits attached to glass beads at a bottom into water
Implementation Method 2
a solenoid valve is installed on the blowdown pipe, the other end of the second drain pipe is provided with a first drain pipe connection port, a first drain pipe is connected onto the first drain pipe connection port
Implementation Method 3
a top of the cultivation substrate is provided with several glass beads, the particle size of the glass beads is 0.6 to 1 mm
Implementation Method 4
a top of each of the exhaust pipes is provided with a screen, and the aperture of the screen is 0.2 to 0.5 mm, blocking, by screens at the tops of the exhaust pipes, glass balls from entering the exhaust pipes in exhausting gas
Implementation Method 5
after decomposition for a period of time, water and the substrate will be polluted
Data Source
AI summary
A self-cleaning cultivation device and a cultivation method for burrowing shellfish are provided. The self-cleaning cultivation device includes a cultivation box. A bottom end inside the cultivation box is provided with a cultivation substrate. The cultivation substrate is composed of a bottom plate, a second drain pipe, and exhaust pipes. A serpentine gas delivery pipe is installed inside the bottom plate. One end of the serpentine gas delivery pipe is provided with an inflation connection port, and the inflation connection port is connected to an air pump through an inflation pipeline. The cultivation substrate of the present invention adopts a glass bead substrate. During the industrialized cultivation, the cultivation substrate does not react with the excreta of shellfish and the fed algae. The cultivation device of the present invention can efficiently remove harmful impurities, ensure a healthy cultivation environment, and reduce the occurrence of diseases.