The term aquaphonics
is a combination of the names of the different processes it involves.Aquaculture,the
farming of fish and then hydrophonics, which is growing of plants in fertilized
water.Let us look at
this process step by step.
Fish living in
tanks/dams excrete waste and respirate
ammonia concentrations that needs to be removed from the tanks/dams,as it is
harmfull to the fish if a built-up of it is allowed.
Ammonia rich
water is processed to harvest helpful bacteria and that in turn is changed from
ammonia to nitrites which in turn is fertilizer.
Nitrate rich
water is then fed to the hydrophonically grown plants. The plant roots absorb
the nitrates and the water is filtered from it. The roots act as a biofilter .
The clean water is cycled back into the fish tanks. Thus forming a close loop
system.
Biogas is
mostly methane ,mixed with a little bit of carbon dioxide and a small amount of
sulfur dioxide.The part we
interested in, is methane. Because it burns just like any other gas like
propane or LPG. Some filter(we call it scrubbing) is needed to remove the other
harmful components before it enters the stove/geyser or is used for gas lights.
Where do we get
biogas.
It can be
produced by using any organic waste and put it in a special construction that
is called a biogas digester.There is many
different designs and one is not really more effective as the other. The only
direct influence in gas production is temperature and in turn will calls for
either a specific design or between one that is standing outside or is buried
below ground..
For Namibia we
mainly concentrate on disgesters that is subsoil design(buried).
From the
digester there is two outputs, one in gas form(methane) and effluent (liquid
concentrate). The latter is ultra rich fertilizer.
We have been
involved in research on biogas for a couple of years now. Its ideal for NAMIBIA
as most farmers farm with livestock, and thus a lot of manure “FOOD” is readily available for the
disgester.
In our mind, there is no reason at all, why
each and every farm in NAMIBIA, should not have a biogas disgester.