NOxAqua

NOxAqua

In the primary sector, aquaculture is the world’s fastest-growing activity. To support that growth the industry needs to find innovative solutions to challenges, such as sustainability, diseases, lack of space for expansion, and limited freshwater availability. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) have been the answer to those problems. These systems are designed to control culture conditions for intensive farming, while increasing biosecurity levels, minimizing water consumption, and managing waste streams.

Clearly, a shift from open farming to sustainable land-based aquaculture is happening in Norway and other parts of the globe. However, only a few Portuguese companies are operating with RAS; therefore, a greater financial and technological investment is needed to advance this production sector in Portugal.

RAS themselves are stimulating demand for technology innovation in areas like aqua tech. Still, there are no real-time sensors for the quantification of highly toxic nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) that can accumulate in close systems.

Therefore, the main goal of this project is the development of innovative sensors to quantify such compounds, using a technological platform (electrochemical biosensors) that is mastered by the start-up Nitrogen Sensing Solutions (promoter). The first product will be a portable nitrite biosensor - the NO2Aqua - that will be launched on the market by the end of the project. The second product will be a standalone device that is able to monitor the three N-nutrients in real-time, the NOxAqua. Finally, a prototype of an automated sampling system specifically designed to integrate and connect the sensors to the tanks will be developed, fulfilling the specific needs of the RAS industry. The Portuguese (Flatlantic and RiaSearch) and Norwegian (NIVA and RASLab) partners will play a fundament role in validating/demonstrating/proving the technology in operational environments, thereby strengthening the scientific and technological relationships between the two States.