July 10, 2007

Dutch firm raises tropical shrimps using heat from power plant

Two Dutch businessmen have figured out a novel and low cost way to grow tropical shrimp in the temperate Netherlands - by tapping heat from a power plant.

The year-old business, optimistically named Happy Shrimp Farm, is located next to a huge power plant in Rotterdam's port.

A pipeline was laid to the powerplant to collect residual heat to heat 24 shrimp pools holding the Pacific white shrimp. The heat from the energy plant keeps the water in the pool warm, at 29 deg C.

Curtessi and his business partner Bas Greiner, both energy conservation specialists, would sell its first crop of shrimp, a modest 1 kg, in September at a special auction. They hope to ramp up production to an annual 60 tonnes eventually.

The farm would be the only firm in northern Europe that can deliver fresh tropical shrimp.

Special bacteria is used to break down the ammonia in the shrimps' excreta while the fresh water comes from recovered rain water. Shrimp feed is in the form of algae and other natural products like soja, corn and starch.

The Happy Shrimp Farm -- which is supported by the Dutch ministries of agriculture and economic affairs, is only the first step in a country bent on sustainable development in shrimp aquaculture.

With contacts already in Germany, the US and Canada, the company aims to set up another 20 shrimp farms worldwide. The shrimp farms would be located in big cities with residual industrial heat and a consumer market, he added.