Santa Clara University Scholar Commons Electrical Engineering Senior Theses Engineering Senior Theses 6-15-2017 Smart and Sustainable Aquaponics Ryan Toal Santa Clara University, [email protected] Kevin Claggett Santa Clara University, [email protected] Justin Goh Santa Clara University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at:https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/elec_senior Part of thePower and Energy Commons Recommended Citation Toal, Ryan; Claggett, Kevin; and Goh, Justin, "Smart and Sustainable Aquaponics" (2017).Electrical Engineering Senior Theses. 36. https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/elec_senior/36 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Engineering Senior Theses at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electrical Engineering Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. SMART   AND   SUSTAINABLE   AQUAPONICS                         By  Ryan   Toal,   Kevin   Claggett,   Justin   Goh        SENIOR  D  ESIGN  P  ROJECT  R  EPORT     Submitted  t o  the  D  epartment  o  f  E  lectrical  E  ngineering     of     SANTA  C  LARA  U  NIVERSITY     in  P  artial  F  ulfillment  o  f  t he  R  equirements  for  t he  d  egree  o  f  Bachelor  o  f  S  cience  i n  E  lectrical  E  ngineering     Santa  C  lara,  C  alifornia     2017                    1 Smart  A  nd  S  ustainable  A  quaponics     Ryan  T oal,  K  evin  C  laggett,  J ustin  G  oh     Department  o  f  E  lectrical  E  ngineering  Santa  C  lara  U  niversity  2017     ABSTRACT    As the global population increases, new ways of sustainable and efficient food  production need to be explored in order to meet the growing demand from society. In  this paper we explore the methods and functionality of an off-grid, semi-autonomous  aquaponics system. This system will serve as a proof of concept for a large scale  aquaponics system which can be modelled in other parts of the world where arable  land is scarce. It was found that though the initial startup costs are high, it will be able  to reduce the cost of food in the long run. The system implements a solar array and  battery system, lighting, temperature controls and a plumbing system.      Keywords :  a  quaponics,  h  ydroponics,  a  quaculture,  s olar  p  anels,  o  ff­grid,  s mart,  sustainable,  l ead­acid  b  attery,  p  umps,  L  ED,  g  reenhouse,     f ood  p  roduction,  L  ECA,  bluegill,  t ilapia,  c rawfish,  s hrimp             2 Acknowledgements     The authors would like to thank Santa Clara’s School of Engineering for providing us  with the funding needed to carry out this project. We would also like to thank Professor  Michael Mcelfresh for his advice and guidance throughout this project. Lastly we would  also like to thank SunPower for donating solar panels to our project, without which our  project would merely have been “Smart”.                                   3 Contents  Abstract  Acknowledgments   1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..……...6  1.1 Problem Statement……………………………………………………………………..6  1.2 Project Background…………………………………………………………………….6  1.3 Motivation……………………………………………………………………………......8  2.0 Design Considerations……………………………………………………………………10  2.1 Objectives………………………………………………………………………….…...10  2.2 System Level Requirements………………………………………………………...10  2.3 Customer Needs………………………………………………………………….…...10  2.4 Solutions…………………………………………………………………………….….11  3.0 Implementation…………………………………………………………………………....12  3.1 System Level Design………………………………………………………………….12  3.2 Software………………………………………………………………………………...12   3.3 Power…………....……………………………………………………………………....14  3.4 Thermal……..……………………………………………………………………..........16   3.5 Water………………………………………………………………………………….....17  4.0 Testing and Analysis……………………………………………………………………...19  4.1 Thermal Functionality………………………………………………………………….19  4.2 Plumbing Functionality………………………………………………………………..20  4.3 Component and Wiring Testing……………………………………………………...21  5.0 Future Works……………………………………………………………………………….22  5.1 Solar Thermal…………………………………………………………………………..22  4 5.2 Insulation………………………………………………………………………………..22  5.3 Painting……………………………………………………………………………….....23  5.4 Solar Tracking……………………………………………………………………….....23  5.5 Alarm……………………………………………………………………………………..23  6.0 Ethical Analysis…………………………………………………………………………....24  6.1 Sustainability……………………………………………………………………........24  6.2 Food Security…….....…………………………………..………………………........25  7.0 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..27  8.0 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………...28  8.1 Aquaponics Sizing…………………....……………………………………………...28  8.2 Budget………………………………………………………………………………....28  8.2 Code…………....……………………………………………………………………....30                          5 1.0 Introduction  1.1 Problem Statement  As the world population continues to increase, people will need to find a way to  produce larger quantities of food in a sustainable fashion. Aquaponic systems show  potential in creating large quantities of food using relatively little space compared to  conventional agriculture. However aquaponics can be potentially labor intensive for the  internal environment of an aquaponics system needs to be carefully maintained. Our  solution is to design and build a smart and sustainable aquaponics system which will  be able to grow a substantial amount of food in a limited space.    1.2 Project Background  What is Aquaponics? Is always the first question that comes up when discussing this  project. In short, aquaponics is a combination aquaculture and hydroponics.  Aquaculture is essentially just fish farming, generally but not always referring to farming  in controlled environments, in contrast to farming in the ocean, or fishing wild fish.  That leaves the obvious What is Hydroponics? Hydroponics is farming without soil.  Instead the plants roots are grown in a nutrient rich solution providing all their water  and mineral needs. These plants can be grown in environments with either no  substrate, just growing out of the water pipe, or an inert substrate such as gravel.  Aquaponics combines these by taking the nutrient rich solution created by the fish and  using that to water the plants, which in turn filter the water so it can be returned to the  fish.  6 Fig 1. The basic flow of an aquaponics system (What is Aquaponics)  The figure above gives a good description of the basic symbioses that an aquaponics  system creates. As you can see, the plants are fertilized by the waste of the fish,  reducing the need for external sources of fertilizer for the plants. The plants act as a  filter allowing the water to be recycled through the system back to the fish without  need of external filtration. Thus the only inputs for the system are reduced to water,  and food for the fish. This is a big savings when looking at aquaponics needs vs either  hydroponics or straight aquaculture, each of which require more inputs to keep the  food growing effectively.  What makes our aquaponics system Smart and Sustainable is the use of automation  and an off-grid power system added to a traditional aquaponics system. In most  aquaponics systems today, there is a lot of manual labor to keep the system running  properly. Pumps must be manually turned on and off, temperature control is generally  manual as well, and it requires a lot of human input to keep running. Our system  doesn’t require any human input other than to refill the consumables of the system, like  fish food, and harvesting the fish / vegetables when they are ready. The other big  innovation is to make this system suitable for more environments than just the  industrial world. We added and off-grid power system so that our aquaponics system  could be implemented in areas without reliable grid power, many of which to day need  7 more farming capability.  1.3 Motivation  When looking at where aquaponics can be most useful in helping solve current and  future issues surrounding food security, two areas become immediately obvious. The  first of these are places that do not have enough arable land for traditional farming to  keep up with a large or growing population. The second less obvious place is urban  centers where fresh produce is not available, aptly named “Food Deserts”. In both of  these areas the ability to have a continuous supply of fresh fish and vegetables without  the need for large land areas or good soil would be a huge boon to their overall food  security.  Fig   2.   Percentage   of   Arable   land   by   country  ( Roke)  There are numerous countries with small amounts of land available for farming, and  many of these countries are projected to see large amounts of population growth in the  future. As you can see from the map above, many of these countries are less  developed so any system that is implemented to help alleviate food security issues  needs to be functional in an off-grid environment. We designed the system with this  constraint in mind because it allows our solution to be potentially more widely  8