Economic comparison of venturi aeration system.

Increasing demand for fishes has necessitated boosting aquaculture production worldwide. Development of aquaculture system is possible by using manmade devices called aerators. Aerators have been used over the years which are typically installed in ponds to facilitate water movement also help to supply sufficient dissolved oxygen (DO). The main point of concern is selecting a suitable aerator in optimizing the benefits with less operational cost of aeration. The aim of this paper is the economic evaluation of the proposed venturi aerator (VA) with different existing aerators, i.e., 1HP 4 paddle wheel aerator (PWA), 2HP 4 submersible venturi jet aerator (SVJA1), 1HP submersible venturi jet aerator (SVJA2), and aspirating aerator (AA) for different pond volumes, different initial DO concentration values of pond, and varying operating hours of aerators. To find out the suitability of an aerator, analysis is based on the aeration cost assessment per unit time of operational hours. It was found that the proposed VA has a meagre aeration cost as compared to other aerators for initial DO concentration of pond when considering the low volumes of pond. Thus, the VA can be considered efficient to meet the aeration demand in an aquaculture system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]