European project VicInAqua

Integrated aquaculture based on sustainable water recirculating system for the Victoria Lake Basin

Clean water is the basis for life, especially for nutrition and agriculture. In order to protect the sensitive ecosystem around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and to ensure the nutrition and health of the people living there, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with further partners, has developed an efficient, flexible and robust system for wastewater treatment and reuse in fish farming and irrigation. Since October 2018, a demonstration plant has been in operation in the city of Kisumu in Kenya, which is also used for local competence building through training and study visits.

The wastewater treatment unit uses a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) to reuse water and improve the quality of fish farming. In the RAS, fish fingerlings are raised which have a particularly high quality due to the constantly monitored water quality.

A new self-cleaning water filter consisting of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) enables combined treatment. These self-cleaning membrane materials contribute to an environmentally friendly long-term performance. An innovative, easy-to-use monitoring system allows the plant to be monitored via smartphone. The filtered wastewater flows back into the RAS and the surplus is also used for agricultural irrigation. The filtered excess sludge is used to produce biogas with further organic waste. Together with a photovoltaic system, the biogas provides a flexible, decentralised energy supply.

An academic student exchange programme enabled ten students from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to learn more about the technologies from the scientific partners at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences as well as at the Institute of Membrane Technology and University of Calabria in Italy.

Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum was a project partner and supported: