Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
64 University of North Texas (141952)
Principal Investigator: Acevedo,Miguel F
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 1,000,000
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 1/1/23 - 12/31/25
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Electrical Engineering
Department, Center, School, or Institute: College of Engineering
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: CPS: Medium: Integrating sensors, controls, and ecotoxicology with decoupled aquaponics using brackish groundwater and desalination concentrate for sustainable food production
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
CFDA: 10.31
Program Title: none
Note:
Although aquaponics is becoming prevalent as a means of food production, efforts to develop these systems in brackish groundwater are very scarce. This project contributes to fill this need by understanding organism response to varying salinity and brackish groundwater chemistry, as well as impacting desalination technology as it proposes a profitable option for concentrate management. Conventional one-loop aquaponics require trade-offs in water conditioning to accommodate the requirements of each unit; thus, decoupled aquaponics systems separate the water conditions of RAS and HP units to attain better conditions for each. The potential use of desalination for this purpose has been studied by modeling but not implemented; hence, solving the aquaponics’ nutrient distribution conundrum has merit by itself and is applicable to freshwater aquaponics. A substantial innovation of this research is the development of real-time respirometry, which has value beyond the specifics of this project; its combination with video tracking for behavioral assessment of toxicity into a RTES, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is a unique contribution of this research. Furthermore, consolidating all variables in the AI to assist in developing models useful to design and operate production-scale systems, represents an advance in CPS technology.
Discussion: No discussion notes