Nantes, France-based Lisaqua has been selected to set up the first shrimp farm in France to use thermal energy generated from the treatment and recovery of household waste.
The company, which secured EUR 4.9 million (USD 5.4 million) in March 2022 to complete its first whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) pilot recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in Nantes, was named the winner of an April 2021 call for expression of interest from France's Le Syndicat Mixte de Traitement des Ordures Ménagères (SMITOM) authority and energy management company Veolia seeking agricultural and industrial projects to complement Monthyon energy recovery unit in the Greater Paris region.
"We favor reliable and local sources of heat. Moreover, we are delighted to build this first farm project based on an industrial ecology model, in partnership with the very dynamic teams of the SMITOM and Veolia, who will be able to bring us their expertise and experience," Lisaqua Co-Founder Gabriel Boneu said in a release.
The new initiative is part of VALO'PULSE, a strategy to identify, select, and support projects to participate in a circular economy approach that will create local and sustainable energy synergies in France.
Lisaqua will now undertake a study into the feasibility of using the waste heat to maintain the water at an optimum 28-degree temperature for the shrimp, which will be co-cultured in Lisaqua’s biofloc system. The company’s model aims to limit environmental impact by reusing 99 percent of the water, and using its effluent to breed marine invertebrates for use in animal feed.
Lisaqua, which is an acronym for low impact and sustainable aquaculture, offers a “triple-zero” guarantee on the shrimp from its experimental farm – zero antibiotics, zero kilometers traveled, and zero polluting discharge.
Following an intensive investigative and planning stage, construction of the heat exchanger and the farm is expected to start in 2024.
“We are very pleased to welcome Lisaqua to our Monthyon site,” SMITOM du Nord Seine-et-Marne President Jean-François Léger said. “We will enable the winners of VALO'PULSE to benefit from the experience and contacts of the SMITOM in terms of technical expertise, the search for additional finance, and administrative procedures.”
Lisaqua has long-term plans to set up a network of shrimp farms using waste heat from agricultural or industrial facilities near major French and European cities, which will offer an alternative to frozen imports of 80,000 metric tons (MT) per year into France and 290,000 MT per year into Europe, Boneu told SeafoodSource in March.
Photo courtesy of Lisaqua
