PROJECT 7

UTILIZATION OF H-OTEC PRODUCED WATER FOR THE CULTIVATION OF HIGH VALUE COMMERCIAL FISH AND INVERTEBRATE SPECIES

Project Leaders: Prof. Dr Aziz Arshad

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant has been tested for a decade as an alternative source of clean energy. Few pilot plants have been established mainly in Japan and Hawaii due to their unique geomorphological bathymetry that provides deep cold bottom seawater. Since then a lot of further improvements to the conventional open and closed systems are being tested and Hybrid OTEC (H-OTEC) system is among the new technology been developed.
The Hybrid OTEC system combines both open and closed system hence producing energy and water as its output.
Golmen et al. (2005) emphasized that deep cold water rich in nutrients and minerals holds an important prospect for fisheries specifically aquaculture sector. This is because the nutrient-rich bottom water could be used to culture live foods in fish hatcheries and the results would be an increase in fish fingerlings production.
Produced water from H-OTEC could be applied in many aspects of aquacultural research.
The chilled water allows the trial experiments on the growth of some commercially important cold water species such as abalone and deep sea groupers.
The cold water could also be tested for stress shock treatment of broodstocks in order to trigger the spawning process.
Conventionally, a chiller is needed to bring down the water temperature and the implicated high costs in energy used have hampered many experimental setups in the tropics.
It is anticipated that the results of the experiment and other deliverables would offer a new opportunity for investment in fish and shellfish culture using hybrid OTEC produced waters.

Main objective:-

To investigate the culture, growth, and maturity of selected abalone (Haliotis sp.) and grouper (Plectropomus sp.) in H-OTEC produced water. The selection is based on feasible broodstocks acquisition and high economic values.

This main objective is broken down into:-

To investigate the growth, metamorphosis, life development and survival rate of selected species of grouper and abalone fingerlings and sub-adults in captivity cultured using H-OTEC system produced water.
To evaluate the reproductive biological characteristics and life history development of the selected grouper and abalone reared using H-OTEC Hybrid produced waters.
To define the selected strains of grouper and abalones broodstocks from the cold water species for an increase in production and sustainable aquaculture.
To determine the dietary requirements and temporal nutrient composition of grouper and abalone along their life development cultured in an enclosed environment using H-OTEC produced water.

Flowchart Project 7

Novel theories / New findings / Knowledge
The new findings would be on the utilization of the H-OTEC produced water for the cultivation of high-value commercial fish and invertebrate species that have big market potentials in the Malaysia market and highly priced.

Research Publications
Ten (10) papers would be published in impact factor journals

Specific or Potential Applications
The knowledge gain in the project could be adapted to optimize the side benefit of H-OTEC system in the country where aquaculture projects of cold water or temperate fish and invertebrate species surrounding the OTEC system can be developed.

Number of PhD and Masters (by research) Students

PhD Student(s): 6
Master Student(s): 10

UPM