Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production.
Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production. Examples of urban food systems include hydroponics, where plants grow in a nutrient solution without soil, and aquaponics, which combines hydroponics with raising fish in tanks.
A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines the use of aquaponics wastewater as a growth medium for lettuce in a hydroponic system. This practice can potentially create a circular ecosystem for organic waste recycling and food production.
The researchers tested effluent from two aquaponic systems in combination with liquid residual from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), an emerging technology that converts wet biomass to biocrude oil through a high-temperature, high-pressure process. HTL yields a wastewater called hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous phase (HTL-AP), which is rich in nutrients and can potentially be used as fertilizer.
Read more at: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Photo Credit: College of ACES
