Industrial Aquaponics

In order to determine that everyone has participated and contributed, each member of every group is required to submit an individual G4 Project Journal that will be sent to the IBO. Please include Dates of discussions and Names of individuals and detail the “minutes” of your meetings. Remember, in order to justify 10 hours of IA you must document at least 10 hours of work Overarching Topic: “Industrial/Commercial Process” 1. PLANNING STAGE Explain all of the finalised details of your specific Planning What is the process? Our process was an industrial one called Aquaponics.

Aquaponics is basically the combination of aquaculture (raising fish in a tank) and hydroponics (cultivating plants in water). It can be used in the farming industry as farmers use it to farm at a large scale (acres). Also people harvest a vast amount of edible fish from this closed ecosystem. With that in mind, we would grow fish and plants together in one integrated system and test the chemistry of the water in relation to different elements present in the system, such as: Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates in a nitrogen cycle.

Then we would investigate the biological impact on the entire system in regards to the fish waste inside and how it provides a food source for the plants and the plants provide a natural filter for the water in which the fish live. The submersible pump pumps the water throughout the system in which the physics lab would be conducted to investigate the behaviour of water. Next, we started to build the system and bought the fish in a separate container. When we were done building the system, the fish were introduced.

Then we integrated the plants into the system and did a Chemistry lab to test the chemistry of water. After these tasks were done, we discussed poster ideas. The poster would involve our data collection and processing of our labs conducted and pictures of our system and its components. 1. Definition of Activities 1. How would each of the group 4 experimental science subjects help in this process? Chemistry: Responsible in regards to our observation of the nitrogen cycle (levels of nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia) over the course of a 18-day period.

Chemistry is also responsible for investigating the chemistry and behaviour of water in the tank system (chemical/physical properties and chemical/physical changes). Physics: Responsible for conducting the lab for testing the mechanics of the siphon by comparing pipe diameter to flow rate of the siphon in order to determine the optimum diameter of the pump in the system. Physics is also used for the second part of the lab involving the submersible pump (movement/behaviour of water: the relationship between volume, pressure, temperature, and other forces present).

This pump increases/boosts the water pressure to more than 1 atmospheric pressure, so that there is a bigger pressure imbalance available and therefore the possibility of supporting a taller column of water. Biology: Responsible for aiding the process in regards to the behaviour of the plants and plant growth in the system over the course of a 16-day period and the bacteria and nutrients being consumed or released by the plants. 1. Which students will be responsible for which segments of the project? Biology: Aline Le and Baljot Kalsi Chemistry: Janani Nirthanarajah and Kabeer Karzai Physics: Cherno Okafor (myself) and Asim Datye 1.

ACTION In this section explain the details of your action including: Subject Specific Research, Include Data Collection methods and results, and Processed Data Subject Specific Research: How a submersible pump works: The Parts: A submersible pump contains a sealed, watertight electric engine with a crankshaft leading through at least one mechanical seal to an impeller enclosed in a housing called a volute. Usually water enters the bottom of the pump and discharges from the top. Other components of a submersible water pump are the cable, which is connected to the motor, and a pipe that transports the water to the surface of the well.

Operation: 1. The motor turns the crankshaft, which spins the impeller, which spins the water around, creating a partial vacuum through centrifugal force. The volute directs the water outflow and increases its pressure. Air pressure forces move water into the pump to fill the vacuum and the process repeats, sending a steady supply of liquid to the surface. While it’s easy to push on water, it’s hard to pull on water. For example, when you drink soda through a straw, you may feel like you are pulling on the water, but you actually aren’t.

What you are actually doing is removing some air from the space inside the straw and above the water, so that the air pressure in that space drops below atmospheric pressure. The water column near the bottom of the straw then experiences a pressure imbalance: the usual atmospheric pressure below it and less-than-atmospheric pressure above it. That imbalance then provides a modest upward force on the water column and pushes it up into your mouth from high pressured area to low pressured area. However this is different for a much longer straw as you will need to suck harder.

That’s because as the column of water gets taller, it gets heavier. It needs a more severe pressure imbalance to push it upward and support it. You’ll need to suck every bit of air out from inside the straw because the pressure imbalance needed to support a tall column of water is approximately one atmosphere of pressure. To get the water to rise higher in the straw, you’ll need to install a submersible pump at the bottom. This pump increases the water pressure to more than 1 atmospheric pressure, so that there is a bigger pressure imbalance available and therefore the possibility of supporting a taller column of water.

As a result, the submersible pump can boost the water pressure well above atmospheric pressure and thereby push the water to the surface despite the great height and weight of the water column. Multiple stage submersible pumps are arranged in series so that the discharge from the first stage becomes the intake for the next stage with each successive stage adding its pressure to the previous one. Finally, this formulates a complete circulation of the system.