Archive for the ‘Value-add’ Category


Aquaculture Power Generation via Wave Energy

October 28th, 2008 by Andrew

Wave energy is a form of renewable energy source generated by the ocean’s wave, and potentially could be used to generate electricity, as well as the free source of energy used for water purification.

The World Energy Council estimated that around 2 terawatts (2 million megawatts) could be produced from the oceans via wave power. This is figure is two times higher than the current world electricity production. It is also estimated that 1 million gigawatt hours of wave energy hits Australian shores annually [1]. Note that wave power is to be differentiated with tidal power [2], which is based on the tidal movement due to relative motion of moon and earth .

Wave energy generation is suitable to be implemented Western Australia, since our wave current is quite strong. Other part of Australia that has strong wave current is Tasmania and eastern side of South Australia. This is quite interesting, since most of the aquaculture industry are located around this area. 

There is one Western Australian company called CETO, which is having the technology to harvest the energy from the ocean’s wave for water purification and power generation.

http://www.ceto.com.au

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V27ZBODcv0c

Perhaps, CETO technology could be used to help aquaculture industry.

[1] CETO: http://www.ceto.com.au

[2] Tidal Power: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

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Water Jet Cutter for Fish Slicing

October 28th, 2008 by Andrew

Water Jet Cutter is a device that uses high-velocity and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) water to cut materials that need to be sliced.

The benefit of the water jet cutter is the ability to cut material without interfering with the material’s inherent structure as there is no “heat-affected zone” or HAZ [1]. Water jet cutters are also capable of producing rather small and intricate cuts in material. And it can potentially be used in fish processing industry to efficiently cut fish meat. 

The use of water jet cutting for fish processing offers some advantages compared to conventional method of slicing the fish using metal baldes/knives. First of all, there is minimal waste because of the highly accurate pin bone cut that can be achieved. The water jet cutting also optimises the shape of the final fillet. Water jet cutting also permits cutting of fish fillet with its skin on, speeding up the process, increasing labour efficiency and reduced manual input. Computer program and pattern recognition software could be used to automate the cutting of different type of fish in various size and shape.

To find out more about the technology, click the following links:

PATENTS:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5162016.html

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5628680.html

 

Commercial companies that offer water jet cutters:

http://www.kmtgroup.com/

http://www.jetedge.com/

http://www.poseidonengineering.com/

http://www.iwmwaterjet.com/waterjet_pictures.html

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter

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Fish Pharming

September 16th, 2008 by Andrew

While it is not directly related to fish as a food source, there has been limited genetic modification on using fish as means of producing protein based drugs such as blood clotting factors.

Could these GM fish  be grown along side food species as a means of targeting other markets in addition to the food industry?

For instance, current aquaculture practice could be used to farm GM fish for biotech companies.

The advantage of using fish for producing protein based drugs is that currently many of these types of protein are produced in expression systems called bioreactors.

Bioreactors are essentially suspensions of GM cells that produce the protein of interest.

The cells have to be kept under optimal conditions and constantly fed nutrients so that proteins are constantly produced. Using a whole organism like a fish to produce a protein drug is potentially an easier and cheaper approach.

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