technical project

I declare that this project report / dissertation titled design and implement aquaponics system is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institutions of tertiary education. Information derived from the published work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given. I am fully aware of the College’s policy on plagiarism and cheating, and that the penalty for submission of plagiarized report could result in a ‘fail’ in Technical Project / Dissertation. I have submitted a copy of this full report in electronic form to my supervisor.

Signature Date

Name ibtihaj yousuf al-harthy

Student Number 130099

CERTIFICATE BY THE SUPERVISOR

The project report / dissertation titled design and implement aquaponics system the bonafide work of ibtihaj yousuf al-harthy, carried out under my supervision. I certify that the work presented in the project report / dissertation is carried out by him / her, and that he / she has achieved the set objectives of the project / dissertation. Information derived from the published work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given at the end of the report. I have personally checked this final report for originality / plagiarism through the Turnitin website and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, satisfied that the report is free from plagiarism.

Signature Date

Name

Countersigned by HoD

I would like to express my singular appreciations of gratitude to my advisor Mr. athar Aziz who advised and helped me with the technical project in all terms by understanding the given task in aspect and guide me in order to complete the technical project within the stated time.

i

iii

Abstract:

Aquaponics refers to the raising of fish as well as growing of plants in a soil-less environment. Fish and plants grows at the same integrated system. The organic food source for plants is sourced from fish waste. On the other hand, plants carry out water filtration for the fish. Nitrifying bacteria also take part by converting ammonia resulting from fish to nitrates, and later to nitrates. Plants use nitrates to grow. Vermicomposting, which results from solid waste from fish is used by plants as food. The objectives of this project is to generate aquaponics system by the use of green energy obtained with solar panels. Build water recycle system that circulates water to fish tank and plants beds. Implement control and monitoring system using Arduino microcontroller interfaced with sensors, actuators, Bluetooth model that allows plants and fish to grow together in a symbiotic and precise environment. The user is in position to receive the updates of the system in a form an application that has been uploaded at their phone. the smart aquaponics systems are demonstrated to be cost-effective, self-sustainable and also be friendly to the ecology in the urban farming. The method can also be adapted to the farmers in the rural areas with the same problem in in the world.

Key Words: aquaponics, Arduino Microcontroller, sensor.

iii

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure2.1 Operation circuit of the Aquaponics system. (Mohamad, 2013) ……………....4

Figure 2.2: A detailed operation of the Aquaponics system. (Mohamad, 2013) … 5

Figure2.3 cycle timer warning diagram. (roger hancock,2012) ……………………. 6

Figure2.4 solar thermal heating system (Kevin R, 2015) ……………………. 8

Figure 2.5: Block diagram of the aquaponics control and monitoring system (Analene Montesines Nagay,2017) …………………………………………………………9

Figure 2.6. The system uses a Direct Current (Thu Ya Kyaw, 2017) ………………..11

Figure2.7. data acquisition unit (Thu Ya Kyaw, 2017) …………………………….. 12

Figure 3.1 flowchart………………………….……………………….……15

Figure 3.2 aquaponics circuit structure …………………………………………. 16

figure 3.3 Arduino Uno (Arduino, 2018).…………...………………………......……...18

Figure 3.4 water pump……………………………………………………………......19

Figure 3.5 acid lead battery …………………………………………………………… 20

Figure 3.6 Bluetooth module ………………………………………………………………21

Figure 3.7 linear voltage regulator (InYAR.com, 2018) ……………………………….22

Figure 3.8 active buzzer (Addicore, 2018) ……………………………………… 22

Figure 3.9 humidity sensor …………………………………………………………………23

Figure 3.10 ph sensor …………………………………………………………………. 24

figure 3.11 solar panel ………………………………………………………………… 25

Figure 3.12 charge controller ………………………………………………………. 26

Figure 4.1 Project Planning Phases ………………………………………………… 30

Figure 5.1(circuit diagram) ……………………………………………………………. 33

Figure5.2 create blynk account ………………………………………………... 34

Figure 5.3 body of the system……………………………………………………… 36

Figure 5.4 solar panel connection ………………………………………………… 37

Figure 5.5 Arduino connections……………………………………………….38

Figure 6.2 blynk page……………………………………………………………………….39

Figure 6.3 pump is off………………………………………………………………………… 40

Figure 6.4 PH warning…………………………………………………………………… 41

List of Figures

vii

viii

ix

PV- photovoltaic

USB- universal serial bus

LED- light emitting diode

PCB- printed circuit board

Chapter 6 result and discussion

Vii

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. Overview

There is a major problem in the many countries that be more concern to the sustainability and food security. The problem of urbanization where towns and cities are growing at high speed due to the population increase. There is a problem of land scarcity and the food production is very low for both vegetables and fish production. In this project, we come up with design and development of a smart aquaponics system that was in a position to synergize farming of fish and growing of vegetables.

Aquaponics is the combination of different departments of farming in aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaculture is the keeping of fish and other waterborne animals while hydroponics is growing plants without the availability of soil. The two departments of any aquaponics farm are dependent on each other in that the plants are fed by the aquatic animals while the animals feed the plants. The fish and the plants do not feed each other at the same time but they are feed indirectly through some intermediate bacteria that feed on both plants. Both plants and fish to feed on the intermediate bacteria thus making the food chain complete. The wastes that are generated by the fish are a source of nutrients for the plants. Aquaponics shares several of the benefits that aquiculture has over typical crop production ways including:

1. reduced expanse necessities,

2. minimize water consumption,

3. accelerated plant growth rates

4. productions are in controlled environments around the year.

This research paper, therefore, tries to a good aquaponics system that is capable of improving fish production and plant growing. This will be done through a collection of data from different aquaponics firms so as to help control the system well. The systems will be able to sense and notify the users an occurrence of an abnormal activity in the system. It may even go further to rectify the problem depending on the extent of the damage caused.

Include in chapter of introduction such is:

1.2. Aim of the Project

The aim of the project is to build an automated solar powered aquaponics system

1.3. Project Objectives

· To research about designing and implementing aquaponics system.

· To design and implement automated solar powered aquaponics system

· To study the working principle of the sensors and software implementation.

· To study the working of Arduino microcontroller and software implementation.

· Test and analysis system performance.

1.4. Project Feasibility

The project consist of hardware component and software programing, were the hardware and software are easy to use and cost efficient.

1.5. Project scope

The aim of this project is to design and implement aquaponics system. By developing aquaponics and make it user friendly and cost efficient.

.

1.6. Project methodology

A comprehensive research has done to get information about the topic the research was in different places in web, journal papers and by asking some specialist in the ministry of agriculture, from the research done we got the advantages and disadvantage of the system and hardware and software implemented in the project then pre designed the system. Finally, get the result and the output.

1.7. Project challenges

Basic challenges that provide suitable environment for the aquaponics system, and difficulties to get some the component of the system.

1.8. Summary:

The outline of the topic report contains 4 step: 1st, the introduction writing a subject generally and explaining all the steps followed. Secondly, literature Review is that the selection of 4 connected topics of project and writing introduction, components, diagram, operation, blessings and disadvantage, then the result. Third, the pre-design. Finally, the conclusion and Future work.

Chapter 1 Introduction

1

CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Five journal papers are selected close to the project topic and of course each one is different from the other through features, operations, Equipment’s, block diagram.

2.1 Paper 1 (Development of aquaponics System using Solar Powered Control Pump) N. R. Mohamad1, A. S. A.M. Soh2, A. Salleh3, N. M. Z. Hashim4, M. Z. A. Abd Aziz5, N. Sarimin6, A. Othman7, Z. A. Ghani8., (2013).

This paper describes a research that has been conducted in Malaysia for the development of aquaponics system to control water pumps and air pumps based on Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC) Technology. The Aquaponics system consists of solar panel, inverter, water pumps, microcontroller and air pumps. The solar is a renewable energy that produces a lower voltage compared to electricity. The inverter is used to convert a direct current to alternate current. The microcontroller is used to operate Aquaponics system for switching water pump and air pump. (Mohamad, 2013)

The methodology used to design the Aquaponics system is based on Multisim and Microchip MPLB IDE software’s, and water and air pumps, LEAD, acid battery, invertor and microcontroller hardware parts, as shown in figure1.

Figure2.1 Operation circuit of the Aquaponics system. (Mohamad, 2013)

Figure 2.1 illustrates the Aquaponics system operation during day time. The solar panels absorb sun energy and converts it to electrical energy to charge lead acid battery. It is very important for the solar panels to be in a correct angle to seize sun energy. The lead charge acid battery would determine whether the microcontroller and LDR would activate the air and water pumps. The invertor will convert the DC voltage to AC voltage. Thereafter, the energy converted would connect to the pump. As a result, this brings the whole cycle to operate. (Mohamad, 2013)

At night the lead acid battery supplies power to the air pumps until the next morning where the solar panel charges the lead acid battery.

Figure 2.2: A detailed operation of the Aquaponics system. (Mohamad, 2013)

During the research, the author has noted that the Aquaponics system is not cost efficient compared to electricity. Moreover, solar panels are more expensive to install and the energy is for a limited period of time in the day and is not static. In addition, there is a limited source of materials for producing solar panels; as a result, solar panels are expensive. Another challenge the author has noted was the replacing the electrical power to solar power. He stated that the solar energy requires an inverter to covert the DC voltage to AC voltage and set-p the voltage grid.

On the other hand, the Aquaponics system reduces the cost of the circuit and the microcontroller. It also provides a sustainable solution of producing green energy. In addition, it produces organic vegetables and fish.

2.2 Paper 2: (Water and Energy Conversion Grow System: Aquaponics and Aeroponics with a Cycle Timer). Roger Hancock., (2012).

According to author Roger, Aquaponics is a great way to provide enormous quantities of food to areas where water is needed. There are 4 main components to build an Aquaponics system. It requires a cycle timer, solar panels, Aquaponics system and live fish.

The cycle timer contains a 555 timer, Counter Chip, D Flip-Flop and a Solid State Relay DC to AC. The cycle timer depends on the size and maturity of plants. Accordingly, for young /new plants water spread would be ON for 1 minute and OFF for 5 minutes. As for mature /older plants, the water spread would be ON for 1 minute and OFF for 15 minutes. This guideline can be adjusted by the environmental condition of the plants. However, a rule of thumb the author noted was OFF timer should be set a few minutes before the plants starts drying out. Moreover, it is critical to ensure that plant’s roots are not drying out over drowning the roots. (roger hancock,2012)

Figure2.3 cycle timer warning diagram. (roger hancock,2012)

The solar panel is used to charge the battery with the sun’s energy. The size of the solar panel depends on the growth system of plants. In addition, solar panels can be used as a back-up power supplier. As for the inverter, it converts the DC energy into AC.

Using the aquaponics system can recycle 99.75% of the water used. In addition, the plants use fish waste as sufficient nutrition. Therefore, there is no need to add any more nutrition’s, which is cost reducing. According to NASA’s report “Aeroponics method can reduce water usage by 98 percent, fertile usage by 60 percent, and pesticide usage by 100 percent.” Also, the aquaponics uses small water pumps, which consumes less amount of energy thus more efficient. The end result of this process is organic food is produced and green energy is generated.

Contrastingly, the Aquaponics system requires a balance between fish and plants, which is challenging to maintain due to the PH requirement and the temperature between fish and plants. Also, when more plants are grown, larger grow beds are needed, which can cost and weight a lot. Also, the water pump has to be relatively large because the high pressure is needed to spray the roots. As a result, the energy demand and back up is needed. Lastly, if the pH level goes off the balance, then water change is required.

2.3 Paper 3(Analysis of solar heating system for an aquaponics food production system) Kevin R. Anderson1, Maryam Shafahi1, Arthur Artounian1, Adam Chrisman2., (2015).

This paper describes a research that has been conducted in USA at the state of California for the development of aquaponics system heated by solar energy to sustain a living environment for fishes at 21C. aquaponics system heated by solar contain of solar collector, heat exchanger, data logger. pump and differential thermostatic controller. Solar collector, collect the solar energy from the sun during morning time then transfer the solar power to thermal storage tank. Thermal storage is 220-gallon storage tank with a Systems of attrition are closed systems, indirect, active. A heat transfer fluid (HTF, usually water) is pumped into a non-compressed closed loop through the compounds and separated from the end-use water heated through a heat exchanger. When the pump is idle, the HTF is removed from the compartments and tubing properly, leaving it empty and protected from frozen. Heat exchanger, an anti-flow heat exchanger between storage tank and fish tanks isolates the solar thermal heating ring from the fish supply water. Data logger is used to record heat exchanger inputs and output. In the Pump The flow rate of the solar collector ring is regulated by a timer, which operates only during daylight hours (Kevin R, 2015). As showing in figure 2.4.

Figure2.4 solar thermal heating system (Kevin R, 2015).

2.4 Paper 4 (An automated solar-powered aquaponics system towards agricultural sustainability in the Sultanate of Oman) Analene Montesines Nagayo, Cesar Mendoza, Eugene Vega and Raad K.S. Al Izki, Rodrigo S. Jamisola Jr., (2017)

According to the journal this paper represents an automated solar powered aquaponics system, designed and implemented to be conducted in the sultanate of Oman. The system is used to reduce the expenses of the agriculture and to improve the quality of the crops and fishes. the system is designed and implemented for the following modules, to generate aquaponics system by the use of green energy obtained with solar panels. Build water recycle system that circulates water to fish tank and plants beds. Implement control and monitoring system using Arduino microcontroller interfaced with sensors, actuators, GSM shield and NI LabVIEW that allows plants and fish to grow together in a symbiotic and precise environment and to implement heating and cooling system for the system. (Analene Montesines Nagay,2017)

Figure 2.5: Block diagram of the aquaponics control and monitoring system

(Analene Montesines Nagay,2017)

The figure above shows aquaponics control and monitoring diagram, system designed with specific consideration as following;

· Water recirculation system: the system used in this design known as CHOP which stands for Constant Height One Pump system. In CHOP the water level in fish tank is continually maintained and so is deemed a really effective system to use and eliminates stress on the fish because of unsteady water levels. additionally, it used just one pump to deliver a continuing flow of water so saving power compare with multiple pump systems.

· Block Diagram of Aquaponics Control and Monitoring System: Arduino microcontroller reads and develop data from different sensors through signal learning circuits that notice the water quality parameters of the cultivation tank and aquaculture beds, still because the greenhouse environmental parameters

· Monitoring and Control Environmental Parameters: The environmental parameters like air temperature, relative humidity, greenhouse gas level and light intensity, within the greenhouse are controlled and monitored mechanically to boost the speed of chemical process or plant production within the agriculture beds.

· Control and Monitoring of Water Quality Parameters: The water quality parameters of the aquaponics system resembling water temperature, pH level, dissolved O level, electrical conduction, total dissolve solids and salinity, square measure controlled and monitored to take care of the simplest growth conditions of the fish within the cultivation tank and therefore the plants on the agriculture beds.

· Solar Energy Conversion System: in the energy conversion DC voltage is converted to AC voltage. The calculable AC power demand of the aquaponics system is 305 Watts and therefore the total energy demand per day is calculable at four,758 watt-hours.

When any default happens in the system the owner of the farm will receive a txt message. (Analene Montesines Nagay,2017)

The design of aquaponics system helps to reduce water consumption, produce organic food, and reduce land scape for cultivation of plants and fish, this project helped farmers to reduce the effort to inspect the system, were they receive text message that contain the data of the system.

2.6 paper 5 (smart aquaponics system for urban farming). Thu Ya Kyaw, Andrew Keong Ng, (2017)

This paper describes a research that has been conducted in Singapore for the development aquaponics system. The energy production in the system will be very important because it will help to run the whole system. The solar system will generate the power that will be used in the pumps, lights, fans, and heaters. There will be a floating energy that is chosen as a stock to be the energy balance. The floating energy varies within a specific range depending on the amount of power that is produced in the solar modules. The power has the same shape as solar irradiant and it is consumed by the aquaponics system. The transfer of power in the aquaponics system is shown in the figure below.

Figure 2.6. The system uses a Direct Current (Thu Ya Kyaw, 2017)

The data acquisition unit will be collecting data from all the sectors of the aquaponics system by completing an interconnection among all the seven modules of the system. These modules include the data acquisition unit where the data is first sent. They also record data for future reference about all the actions in the system. After recording, the data is sent to the alarm unit of the acquisition system. The data acquisition unit is shown in the figure below.

Figure2.7. data acquisition unit (Thu Ya Kyaw, 2017)

.

.

The alarm unit of the aquaponics system receives data from the acquisition unit of the system. The data is brought here so that the owner of the system can be alarmed about the information that has been detected by the system. This part of the system has three parts, the green LED light, a buzzer, and a red LED light. When the system is in a good condition, the alarm displays a green light but when it is unhealthy, it produces a red light. The red light is accompanied by a buzzing sound so as to easily alert the user about the risk situation of the system. (Graber, Junge, 2009)

In the implementing the system of the aquaponics system, all the hardware components were combined in the way the final design that was implemented for the models. When each and every component was being integrated, it was first inspected carefully and tested then the combination took place. By the act of simulating different scenarios, the implementation system was evaluated for the system. An example is when the water temperature gets in unhealthy range, the system was in a position to trigger the unit of alarm to make the user be alerted and be in a position to activate the rectification unit for the purpose of solving the problem by turning on the water heater. The system also was in a position to send notifications in form of messages, emails and push notifications as well as being able to record the fault events in the database. When the degree of water temperature returns normal, the system was in a position to automatically switch off the water heater, the system also was to notify the user through the required channel and record the recovery event in the database of the system. There was a different programming language that was used in the proposed system like JavaScript and the notification services like google firebase were utilized for making the system more stable. The google firebase was more preferred in the system as it could provide a real-time database for the purpose of storing the data and offer the push notification in the mobile application. The web application for the system which provided up to date sensor values and the actual status of the system. The system was in a position to display the remaining time for the next feeding attempt by the use of countdown timer. The mobile application GUI gives up to date sensor values and the threshold parameters and gives the user the opportunity to control the actuators. The circle progress view has the ability to display the sensor values. For the purpose of increasing the cybersecurity for the system, all the information that is more sensitive in the proposed system such as the password which is encrypted using the hashing logarithm. The secure login page was also implemented for the website application for the purpose of preventing the system from the unwanted access in the system (Tyson, et al 2017)

When the rectification unit learns about the problem in the system, it has to intervene so as to correct the problem if it is capable of doing it. This is done through activation of the necessary actor that is capable of the rectification process. The central processor determines whether the actuators should be activated and it makes the decision depending on the information contained in the data collected. There are four types of actuators in the rectification unit. The water heater is one of the actuators that increases the temperature of the water if the data directs that the water temperature is too low for the fish and plants. The secondary water pump is another actuator n the machine that ensures that water in the fish tank does not get low that a certain level in case the primary water source fails to fill the required water level. The fourth actuator in the system is the fish feeder is responsible for feeding the fish if the food from the plants is not enough for their growth.

The central processing unit consists of two sections. One of the sections contains the Arduino Mega shield that is used for sending and receiving the information to and from the sensors and the actuators. They receive the information from the acquisition unit and sends it to the rectification unit. The other section has a camera that enables the live streaming of the data in the system.

The data collection in the project was done in search a way that the research consisted a large proportion of the total population of people benefiting from the aquaponics farming in California. This was aimed at making sure that the sample of the population was good enough to make a good conclusion about the farming. 85 000 aquaponics farmers were included in the research to determine the major problems facing the activity so as to make a good system that could help everyone in the industry. I wanted to know the major problems facing the industry at large so that we can look at the possible solutions to such problems. Some of the problems that were put in question were the low temperatures that usually hinder the fast growth of the crops and animals or even sometimes going further to kill them. Lack of proper lighting in the system that hindered the crops from manufacturing enough food for the fish was also another challenge that needed to be dealt with so as to make the farmers comfortable. Other farmers faced the problem of sometimes the fishes dying due to lack of enough water in the tanks when the primary water sources failed to work and the owners did not learn about the problem. All these problems had to be rectified using the newly implemented system. The system is mainly made from the perspective of using idea electrical engineering to make some electrical appliances used in making the farming easy. Some electrical theories are applied in the whole project so as to make sure it meets all the required standards to avoid failure at work that can always lead to losses to the farmers. Some ideas were borrowed from mechanical engineering to make the system move steadily to allow transfer of water and nutrients from one point to the other. (Rakocy, 2007)

3.4 Summary

This segment joined the methodology of the gadget and criteria, where it consolidates the square structure and its illuminations, and its standard discourages that is utilized in this gadget, change prerequisites and a little short about it and how it's utilized in the contraption, and the streaming chart of the gadget in its last stage with an excavator light on it.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

6

CHAPTER 3 PRE-DESIGN

The aim of the project is to design and implement aquaponics system

DC regulator power supply

Actuators