Pitt shows how to grow tons of food in freight container

Aquaponics team wins Ford challenge

When it comes to efficient food production, the ideal is to produce it locally at low cost, with minimal use of water, resources and energy, along with a focus on recycling.

Making notable advances toward that goal, the University of Pittsburgh Aquaponics Project team won first place and $35,000 in project funding during the 10th annual Ford College Community Challenge, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company Fund, or Ford Fund.

The Pitt team, including students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan, created “a 21st century food system” that raises fish and grows basil inside a 20foot-by-8-foot shipping container, all through a process known as aquaponics.

The process combines aquaculture — the farming of fish,

crustaceans and plants in water — with hydroponics, a method of growing plants with a continuous supply of water containing nutrients, rather than soil, said Kareem Rabbat, a 21-year-old sophomore majoring in environmental engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.

A nursery built atop Pitt’s freight container includes PVCtowers with basil plants growing from pockets in the pipes. Water, containing fish waste from a first-floor tank of 50 tilapia, is pumped to the top of the towers and allowed to trickle through the plant roots before returning by gravity to the tank. Solar panels power the pump.

The result is “an almost entirely closed-loop system,” with fish waste feeding the plants, which in turn filter the water. Tilapia, a species of fish commonly used in aquaponics, breathe surface air. “Tilapia produce a lot of waste, which gives more nutrients to the plants, and they are good at being kept together in small spaces,” said Mr. Rabbat of Bangor, Northampton County.

The Aquaponics Project originally was based Downtown near the Gateway T Station, but now sits next to a community garden in East Liberty. The 160-square-foot container can produce 10,000 pounds of food annually — 10 times of traditional production per square foot, with 70 percent less energy and 90 percent less water, the team says.

In an important addition, Mr. Rabbat said, he helped design an aerobic digester where food waste decomposes to produce methane, a source of fuel to heat the container and allow food production year-round.

The team has partnered with 412 Food Rescue, which recovers food from grocery stores just beyond the expiration date to provide to needy families. The rescue service is sending food no longer edible to Pitt’s Aquaponics Project rather than to a landfill, Mr. Rabbat said.

Fully decomposed food from the digester also provides nitrogen-rich fertilizer for community gardens. Food for the tilapia is the only necessary addition to the production loop.

During the competition, 10 university teams were selected from 50 entrants to receive $25,000 each. Winners included CMU’s Home Inc.Ubator project that helps those displaced by East Liberty development to collaborate on the design of their own affordable housing.

For the 10th anniversary of the challenge, Pitt, Olin College of Engineering and Michigan Tech University were selected from the top 10 to compete for an additional $10,000 and a Ford van, with Pitt showing how it could use the van to pick up food waste and redistribute food it produces and fertilizer generated in its digester.

“The judges were impressed with how innovative the project was,” said Farah Harb, the Ford Fund education program coordinator. “It’s a tangible project, and they described how the van would be creatively used to impact their project.”

For now, Mr. Rabbat said the team foresees establishing a network of containers to generate healthful food in so-called urban food deserts across the region and beyond.

“We have no major hurdles and we’re confident we can get this done,” he said. “We’re excited to do it.”