Sustainable duckweed production as a protein source for aquaculture

Spirodela polyrhiza aus der Kultur an der ZHAW Wädenswil.

At a glance

Project leader : Dr. Constanze Pietsch-Schmied, Dr. Dominik Refardt, Dr. Timo Stadtlander
Project team : Andreas Seitz, Mathias Sigrist, Fridolin Tschudi
Project budget : CHF 500'000
Project status : completed
Funding partner : Federal government (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft BLW)

Description

Switzerland is not supplied with sufficient amounts of protein for feed production, but has to import the main proportion from other countries. Duckweed can show high growth rates and protein contents on diluted manure and can reach production rates per squaremeter which are comparable to commonly used terrestrial plants. However the harvest of duckweed is time consuming and this leads to the need of an automatic concept for their culture. The project will clarify how high production efficiency and biosafety of a duckweed culture can be guaranteed and if fish can be sucessfully fed with duckweed. The feeding trials will be conducted with different fish species.

Publications

Stadtlander, Timo; Bandy, Jaclyn; Rosskothen, Dennis; Pietsch-Schmied, Constanze; Tschudi, Fridolin; Sigrist, Mathias; Seitz, Andreas; Leiber, Florian,

2022.

Dilution rates of cattle slurry affect ammonia uptake and protein production of duckweed grown in recirculating systems.

Journal of Cleaner Production.

357(131916).

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131916

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