The only way is up

Vertical Oceans’ modular stacking RAS system for shrimp will work anywhere, say the company’s founders. Robert Outram reports.

Shrimp farming is big business. Just one species – Pacific whiteleg shrimp – accounted for well over six million tonnes in the global seafood trade, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.

The shrimp farming model is broken, however. So says John Diener, CEO of Singapore-based Vertical Oceans – and he has a plan to fix it.

John Diener

Vertical Oceans raises whiteleg shrimp (L.vannamei) in the company’s own, self-designed recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). At present, it is operating at demo level – although if you are lucky enough to live in Singapore you can already order freshly harvested shrimp from Vertical Oceans – but the plan is to scale up to commercial production with a new plant that could be up and running next year.

Around 10 years ago, Diener was CEO of Gold Coin Nutrition, part of the Gold Coin group, an aquaculture feed and genetics co based in Singapore. The company was focused on shrimp farming customers and Diener had the opportunity to see many farms in operation.

Vertical Oceans facility, Singapore

He says: “I visited probably around 500 shrimp farms. I saw a pattern, with shrimp farming in coastal pools cycling water from the ocean and dumping it back into the ocean, often with little or no treatment. That effluent has a negative effect on water around the farm and then they are sucking that water back in.

“It was an inefficient model.”

Vertical Oceans offers an alternative vision – shrimp raised in clean, filtered and recirculated water, close to consumers so that not only is less transportation required, but also the product arrives at the restaurant or dinner table within hours, not days, of being harvested.

With no “off the shelf” solution available, however, Diener and his colleagues had to develop their own system from scratch.

As he puts it: “We had to reinvent pretty much everything… to get the optimum result required a closed recirculating system, and I couldn’t see anything already out there that could get the result we wanted.”

One priority was to make the tanks movable so that the shrimp could be moved as the grew, to ensure that population density levels were not exceeded. Overcrowding can lead to stress and mortalities.

Racking system

Diener explains: “We needed to be able to split populations and move them into new tanks. And we need to stock new batches on a continuous basis. It’s a 365 day a year process.

“Frequent small batches make it work more like a continuous system. With smaller tanks you can control the environment for each batch.”

The classic model for a shrimp RAS system is a biofloc setup, using particles and selected microorganisms to filter the water. The Vertical Oceans approach is a little different, with macroalgae playing a key role.

There are two elements to the filtration system: first, removing solids from the water and concentrating them, and secondly, removal of ammonia and nitrogen through biofiltration, using the macroalgae for which these dissolved elements act as a fertiliser.

Shrimp

As Diener explains, macro algae are easier to control, even if not easy to grow. The algae biomass can also be sold for some economic value. And, he adds, it’s good for shrimp health – and their taste.

The microbiome within the system is still hugely important, however, and it is closely monitored to ensure that beneficial organisms flourish and potential pathogens are minimised.

The tanks can be stacked for greater efficiency and the modular nature of the system means that it is easy to grow an existing facility.

Vertical Oceans also had to develop bespoke technology for a range of functions, including, for example, underwater cameras able to assess biomass, and an automated feeding system.

The offering, the company says, is a good quality seafood product that is affordable for most consumers. In Singapore, Vertical Oceans can deliver fresh shrimp, typically within four hours of harvest.

Vertical Oceans tank

But surely a RAS system, using water and energy, must incur a lot more costs than a coastal pool?

Diener says: “Our overall expenses are the same as for a pond in India or Vietnam, for example, but the mix of costs is different. Feed and labour and seedstock are the big costs. Energy is not a major cost for us.

“We are cost-competitive”.

Patrick Vizzone, co-founder and Chief Financial Officer, points out that typical shrimp farming does not factor in its very real environmental costs.

He also stresses that the “location-agnostic” nature of the Vertical Oceans system means that it can produce shrimp where its consumers are located, a potentially important advantage given that the world seems to be moving away from unfettered international trade.

Vizzone says: “There are tariff and non-tariff barriers, which we have seen particularly over the past six or seven years. The US, for example, has levied anti-dumping duties on certain countries in Asia.

Patrick Vizzone

The highly automated nature of the process also makes any potential international expansion easier, since a degree of expertise can be built into the system.

Diener says: “We could set up a facility in less than a year.”

The company hopes to start setting up its expanded facility in Singapore this year, for production to come onstream in 2025.

The new facility is planned to be capable of producing 100 metric tonnes per year in Singapore initially, but the optimum scale is between 500 and 700 tonnes.

Addressing concerns that were heightened by the Covid-19 lockdowns and their impact on trade, Singapore’s “30 by 30” goal is to produce 30% of its own food domestically by 2030.

Multitrophic farming system

According to Vertical Oceans, one scaled plant of about 80,000 sq ft could produce 18% of Singapore’s domestic seafood supply, with a very small footprint in terms of space and energy.

As Vizzone puts it: “It makes a ton of sense for a country like Singapore”.

The sheer efficiency of the RAS system also means, says Diener, that any doubts about the plant’s water consumption – another issue for Singapore, which relies on neighbouring Malaysia for much of its water supply – can be laid to rest. In fact, he says, the facility uses less water than the average restaurant.

Anyone concerned about what a shrimp farm next door might smell like, or whether it would be producing effluent on a grand scale also has nothing to fear, he stresses. For example, the disinfectant used for the tanks is a biological, vinegar-based treatment.

If the Vertical Oceans concept is as successful as the teams hopes it will be, northern hemisphere shrimp lovers may, sometime soon, be enjoying freshly harvested tropical shrimp grown in their own home town.