Aquaculture to create US$13.3B water treatment sector by 2030

BOSTON—Aquaculture, the farming of fish and other aquatic animals, is expected to help turn the water treatment industry into a $7.2 billion sector in 2014 and to $13.3 billion by 2030, according to Lux Research.

“Aquaculture is an increasingly vital means of supplying demand for seafood, as wild fisheries suffer from stress and collapse,” the research firm said in a release. “Water treatment is essential to successful aquaculture.”

Lux Researchers evaluated opportunities in the rapidly growing market for advanced water treatment in aquaculture. Among their findings:

• Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) enjoy many advantages. Currently, advanced reuse systems represent only 4.5 per cent of the total aquaculture market, with pond culture the dominant means of production. However, by 2030, RAS will produce over 40 per cent of the total aquaculture output.
• Europe is poised to be a leader in water reuse systems. Between 2000 and 2013, the U.K. added 25 RAS facilities; Norway’s Nofima, the largest aquaculture research facility in Europe, has installed over 1,000 tanks and hatcheries; and Denmark expects 90 per cent of its aquaculture production to come from recirculating systems.
• Wastewater companies leveraging expertise to tap RAS market. Kruger Kaldnes, a Veolia subsidiary, has tapped its traditional moving bed biofilm reactor for aquaculture. Among promising start-ups, BioGill uses vertical membrane sheets, and BioFishency has built an “all-in-one” plug-and-play solution.

Click here to download for a fee the report Blue Revolution: The Fast-growing $7.2 Billion Water Treatment Opportunity in Aquaculture.