Evaluating environmental and economic efficiency of a super-intensive Vannamei shrimp farm for nutrient flow circulation

Abstract

Abstract Shrimp farming has provided several significant economic benefits to the residents of the Mekong Delta region. However, it posed numerous environmental concerns due to high nutrient content in wastes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the nutrient recovery efficiency from a super-intensive shrimp pond system for nutrient circulation. The material flow analysis tool was used to analyze the effectiveness of allocating nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon) in the research area’s super-intensive Vannamei shrimp farming system, and then construct a material flow circulating system. The findings revealed that in the current system, the amount of nutrients that shrimp absorb is 26.3% TN, 12.2% TP and 17.5% TOC. This study designed a system using circulating fluxes of nutrients. This system combines settling ponds and biological sedimentation ponds as well as composting and biogas digester solutions. The proposed system also reduces input nutrient costs by 53.6% TN, 62.8% TP and 40% TOC. On the other hand, the proposed system will meet the amount of heat for cooking for the 3 households and generate 1 ton of compost/crop for the garden.