Life Cycle Assessment of an Aquaponics System: Identification of Environmental Hotspots

Session: Great Lakes Fish Habitat Priorities Development, Implementation, and Adaptive Management (4)

Ramin Ghamkhar, University of Wisconsin-Madison, [email protected]
Andrea Hicks, UW-MAdison, [email protected]

Abstract

Currently, global fish consumption is increasing due to the world’s population increase, as well as changes in human’s diet norms. Consequent environmental impacts of this consumption increase on the ecosystems are raising concerns with respect to fisheries resource depletion and ecosystems deterioration.

Natural fish production environments, including the Great Lakes, are one of the ecosystems that are in danger of losing their carrying capacity due to anthropogenic activities, such as overfishing, waste emissions, and ecosystem change. One approach for fish production that minimizes waste and damages to ecosystems is tightening nutrient cycles. Aquaponic food production is a prospective solution to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of food production systems, including nutrient losses and water consumption. 

A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment utilizing multiple environmental impact categories is performed on an aquaponics system. This provides the opportunity to investigate the environmental impacts of using closed-loop aquaponics compared to open natural systems to meet the increasing global demand for food production in a cold weather environment. Heat, electricity, equipment, and fish food are contributing to >88% of environmental impacts in all investigated categories. In addition, practical alternatives for using different real-case scenarios (effective heating, equipment lifespans, fishmeal-free fish food, etc.) is proposed and evaluated.

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