10076580Mobile Artemia Production Unit: Toward sustainable protein productionClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKAquaculture is now the fastest-growing food sector and is as big as traditional fisheries in production volume. As such, aquaculture feed is following this trend, relying heavily on plant based ingredients complemented by essential marine ingredients (fishmeal), which represent 20% of the total fisheries volumes. However, this strategic ingredient is now a fully exploited resource and alternative ingredients cannot fully replace fishmeal. This marine protein crisis endangers the sustainable growth of aquaculture and human nutrition. Aquanzo is pioneering the transition of marine ingredients production from harvesting to farming. We are developing technologies (engineering, genetics and feedstock nutrition) to farm artemia, a marine zooplankton, on land and at scale using agricultural byproducts. We have demonstrated that artemia meal is nutritionally comparable to fishmeal. As a result, we are now moving forward with plans to scale up production operations. To achieve this, we have assembled a team of experts (9 staff and 5 advisors) from fish nutrition to engineering with the support of Innovate UK, SAIC and several industrial companies. We have produced several kilos of product and have several trials planned in both fish and poultry diets to validate and iterate the first farmed marine ingredients for animal feed available globally. This project will innovate the novel farming system by analysing the feasibility of a mobile unit in order to leverage underused industries' nutrient-rich wastewater and reduce environmental impact of operation. Our project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Glasgow (CENSIS), who are partnering with us to develop the mobile unit's IoT monitoring. Through this project, we will develop and test a mobile unit approach that assesses the economic and environmental impact of farmed marine ingredients using nutrient-rich wastewater. This innovative approach will help accelerate the commercialisation of these technologies, benefitting industries such as malting, distilleries, and dairy industries that produce large volumes of wastewater. This fundamental shift in producing marine ingredients will enable supporting the growth of aquaculture and animal feed and human nutrition while reducing the environmental impact by producing locally. It will also cement the role of the UK as a leader in innovative solutions to global problems.