Technology

Greenhouses:

Solar greenhouses are common in northern China, but uncommon elsewhere for commercial year-round production. Optimization of greenhouse design depends on local weather conditions, which may be subtly or obviously different from northern China. We have developed an open source greenhouse computer simulation to compare and optimize designs anywhere in the world using historical satellite weather data.

This model has allowed us to design a greenhouse for year round production in Canada without artificial lighting and minimal to no heating costs. Experimental validation of this model and design in a prototype greenhouse are ongoing.

Algae:

Algal turfs are a diverse collection of algae that grow on hard surfaces. These are common in coral reef ecosystems, and grow extraordinarily quickly, providing the energy for reef ecosystems. They are often overlooked because they are grazed almost as quickly as they grow and do not accumulate large amounts of standing biomass like terrestrial forests or kelp beds. The high growth rate algal turfs can be harnessed to grow a high-protein product for fish feed, while cleaning the water they grow in and absorbing excess nutrients from agriculture runoff. Because algal turfs have high productivity, and all of the biomass is valuable, preliminary calculations show vastly higher yields than the equivalent area of wheat or traditional agriculture.

Our task is to develop a system whereby algal turfs are integrated with highly productive shrimp farms, transforming algae into shrimp feed.

Our most recent algal turf research can be found here. Covid-19 has limited our ability to travel and import specimens for continued development but we hope to test this feed with shrimp soon.