Subteams
Dr. Higgins
Auburn University
About the Research
Dr. Higgins at AU is conducting life cycle assessments to enhance climate control efficiency in Controlled Environment Agriculture, focusing on sustainability modeling and environmental impacts.
Additionally, he is developing an advanced wastewater treatment system for CEA irrigation, incorporating an algal-bacterial nitrifying reactor and UV disinfection, with the goal of reducing freshwater usage, fertilizer consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Significant Accomplishments
- Developed Poultryponics in which poultry processing wastewater is treated for fertigation of hydroponic lettuce. Showed that lettuce yields can rival traditional hydroponic media so long as deficient nutrients (K, Mg, Ca) are supplemented.
- No Salmonella, Campylobacter, or E. coli ever detected in Poultryponics lettuce across two years of production.
- Showed that illumination of fish tanks in aquaponics increases fish yields without harm to tomato production in substrate culture, despite algae growth.
Significant Works
- Pilot-Scale Evaluation of Poultryponics: Insights into Nitrogen Utilization and Food Pathogen Dynamics — Here, we show the effectiveness of different treatment strategies for poultry processing wastewater with the aim of growing hydroponic butter lettuce.
- Assessing nitrogen recovery in poultryponics for hydroponic lettuce production using treated poultry processing wastewater for increased nitrogen neutrality — Poultryponics could effectively grow lettuce but with low levels of nitrogen utilization efficiency. We recommend a much larger lettuce production and water recycling to improve efficiency in comparison to the pilot system tested here.
- Aquaponics design configuration impacts yield of tilapia and tomatoes — Coupled operation and natural light penetration into the fish tank increased fish yields. Despite algae growth in illuminated fish tanks, there was no negative impact on tomato production.