Sustainable Aquaculture: Education, Research and Outreach for Small Farms

The UK work will be focused in objective 2.1: Develop and evaluate designs to manage risk with regard to threat of power interruption. The primary focus of floating raceway design will be to manage risk with regard to threat of power interruption. Three separate designs will be developed and installed at the Kentucky State University Research Farm. These designs will be developed in collaboration with Drs. Joseph Dvorak and Donald Colliver, with the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture Food, and the Environment. The treatments are: 1. Control. This system will be connected to the electrical grid to power a regenerative blower that will supply air to operate an airlift to push water through the system. When the power is interrupted, these systems have a stand-by gasoline or propane generator with a transfer switch that engages automatically so the air blower runs continuously and water flow is maintained. When power returns, the backup system disengages and operates normally. 2. Simple battery backup. This system will be connected to the electrical grid to power dual aerators to push water through the system. Back-up power is a battery bank system with controls such that the device pushing water through the raceway draws from the battery system when there is an interruption in service. A new aeration product (12 v DC, 275 watts at full power) will be the device pushing water through the raceway. The two farm systems will be of this design. 3. Solar. This system will be stand-alone and not be connected to the electrical grid. Ground mounted solar photo-voltaic panels will capture energy that will be stored in batteries and distributed as needed. Various motors, including the new 12 volt aerator will be considered as a device to push water through the floating raceway. KSU will handle the installation, maintenance and operation of the floating raceways. UK's efforts will be focused on the development and experiments to evaluate the design with regards to its engineering effectiveness. Specifically this will require electrical and mechanical design and construction of devices to push water through the floating raceway system. Dr. Joseph Dvorak will focus on development of the simple battery backup treatment and Dr. Donald Colliver will focus on development of the solar treatment. The control challenges will also be used in UK classes to create projects for the students.