Fish and lettuce farming in clean water cleaned in an environmentally friendly way via vibrations. It is one of the C-Dome's promising future applications in agrifood. H2O Technics developed this innovative buoy to rid water of bacteria, algae, biofouling, parasites and pathogens in an environmentally friendly way.
With the innovation, the company is one of the category finalists Agri & Food of Rabobank Sustainable Innovation Award. The award ceremony will be held on 21 March.
The system is currently deployed at salmon farms in Norway, Australia, Ireland, Scotland and Chile. The innovation is also suitable for other forms of fish farming, aquaculture and aquafarming and applications in the agricultural sector worldwide where farms face water pollution.
Also for process industry
The buoy is also a solution for the process industry of the agrifood sector, among others, where cooling water needs to be cleaned. H2OTechnics is now testing domestically in aquaponics.
At the salmon farms where H2OTechnics has supplied, the deployment of the buoy leads to faster growth and better health of the fish. The farms can also omit the use of chemicals.
Cleaning with water energy
The C-Dome, a buoy equipped with very powerful resonators with an average frequency of 40kHz and the unique strength of 110 dB and a control system, generates ultrasonic sound waves in the water at varying frequencies and strengths. This is done via titanium heads coupled to cables and electronics cabinets above water.
The generation of those sound waves by the resonators leads to the principle of Nano cavitation.The technique produces over 40,000 vibrations per second that convert mechanical energy in the water into kinetic energy. The pulses are many times stronger than in traditional systems. The result is large-scale Nano cavitation up to 55 metres in salt water and 40 metres in fresh water. Nano cavitation is microscopic, but over 100 times more powerful than ultrasound alone.
The phenomenon causes an implosion of molecules in the moving water after rapid pressure drop and then rise again. This creates small strong jets of water and vacuum bubbles. The energy of those jets and bubbles present in the water prevents unwanted pathogens, bacteria, algae, biofouling and parasites from growing further and removes them from the water. This existing sound wave technology now gets its first unique global practical application with the C-Dome.
