IMPROVING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF AN INTENSIVE RECIRCULATING ACQUACULTURE SYSTEM USING A WATER-WATER TYPE HEAT PUMP

Aquaculture efficiency practiced in recirculating systems depends on a variety of factors, among which the most important is the energy consumed by the whole system. In order to assure a high degree of energy conservation, in a recirculating aquaculture system has to be maximized the recirculating water degree and has to be imposed the use of renewable energy sources for heating, respective for cooling the water within system as well as of hall. Maintenance of an appropriate climate in a recirculating aquaculture system involves high energy consumption, determined by high water quantities which have to be heat or cool, as well as determined by maintaining water temperature and of breeding space. An optimal solution for replacing conventional systems of heating/cooling and optimizing of energy consumption is the use of the heat pumps. In the present paper are presented experimental results performed with a heat pump of water-water type at different water replacing rates and two different water flows for demonstrating efficiency of a heat pump for improving energy consumption of a RAS