1. Abstract

In September 2026, WoLize officially launched its new generation of industrial-grade, ultra-high-density clear-water shrimp recirculating aquaculture system (Clear-Water Shrimp RAS) turnkey solutions to the global high-value aquaculture market. In response to the dire situation facing the global Whiteshrimp(Litopenaeus vannamei) industry — plagued by Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS), Enterohepatoparasite (EHP), and the extreme difficulty in controlling water quality under traditional ‘Biofloc’ systems — WoLize has pioneered the integration of shallow-water raceway hydrodynamics, automatic shrimp shell separation technology, and an ultra-clean clear-water biochemical process. Commercial field trials have demonstrated that this system completely isolates the farm from external pathogens, consistently raising shrimp survival rates to over 95%, achieving a production yield per unit volume of water exceeding 15-20 kg/m³, and enabling a complete 85-day rapid harvest without the use of antibiotics or any muddy odour.

Table 1: Details of WoLize’s improvements to the new generation of land-based high-density recirculating aquaculture systems for white-leg shrimp

2. Description of the Closed-Loop Architecture for Core Processes

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the physical and biochemical flow in an industrial-scale recirculating aquaculture system for freshwater prawns

STEP 01-Shallow-water run-out tanks and aerated horizontal flow

Moving away from traditional deep-water circular tanks, a matrix of 0.8-1.0 m shallow-water run-out tanks suitable for benthic shrimp is adopted. The pool floor is fully covered with microporous aeration nanotubes, which, in conjunction with air-lift baffles, create a gentle ‘air-lift horizontal flow’. This not only prevents physical damage to the shrimp’s antennae and soft-shelled shrimp caused by strong pump vortices, but also ensures that uneaten feed and faeces at the bottom are smoothly transported to the waste collection area.

STEP 02-Patented Physical Shrimp Shell Separator:

Addressing the industry-wide challenge of frequent moulting in shrimp, which readily clogs microfiltration screens, the system incorporates a specially designed wide-channel hydraulic screen and a dedicated hydraulic cyclonic separation chamber upstream of the main effluent outlet. Within 30 seconds, this setup prioritises the physical separation of large, lightweight empty shells and dead shrimp, ensuring the smooth operation of subsequent precision filtration units.

STEP 03-Microfiltration Retention and Foam Fractionation:

Wastewater discharged from the bottom undergoes solid-liquid separation within seconds via a 30-micrometre drum microfiltration unit; the effluent then enters a high-efficiency protein separator optimised for high-salinity seawater environments, utilising ozone micro- and nano-bubbles to effectively extract dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and high-concentration colloids excreted by the prawns, maintaining the water in a crystal-clear ‘clear water’ state.

STEP 04-Seawater-Customised Moving-Bed Bioreactor:

Loaded with biological media featuring a specific surface area > 1,500 m²/m³ and high biofilm retention rates, this reactor thoroughly nitrifies the high ammonia-nitrogen load generated by the high-protein diet of black tiger prawns, strictly limiting total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) and highly toxic nitrites to within the safe limit of 0.1 mg/L.

STEP 05-Automated dosing centre for moulting minerals and ions:

In fully enclosed systems, key trace elements are prone to leaching during long-term circulation. The system integrates online electrical conductivity (EC) and hardness sensors to precisely dose calcium, magnesium and potassium ions, along with composite carbonate alkalinity, in accordance with the shrimp’s moulting cycle, thereby eliminating moulting disorders and soft-shell disease at source.

STEP 06-Full-Flow UV Disinfection and Closed-Loop Water System:

Recirculated water passes through a high-intensity UV array to inactivate a broad spectrum of pathogens (particularly Vibrio bacteria). The overall water recirculation rate reaches 95–98 per cent, completely eliminating the pathways for disease introduction associated with traditional aquaculture methods that draw seawater or river water.

3. Client Background and Key Challenges

The global white shrimp industry is a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, yet the supply side is currently facing an unprecedented ‘double bind of ecological and disease-related challenges’:

Disease outbreaks leading to ‘a struggle for survival’: Open-air elevated ponds and earthen ponds are highly susceptible to birds, typhoons and contaminated water sources. Frequent outbreaks of White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) and Vibrio enteritis result in persistently high average harvest rates across major global production areas, with survival rates sometimes falling below 40%.

The risk of losing control of the biofloc system: Many indoor shrimp farms utilise biofloc technology, but it is extremely difficult to precisely control floc concentration manually. Should algal blooms collapse or dissolved oxygen levels fluctuate, this can easily trigger a complete collapse of water quality and oxygen depletion across the entire pond; the technical barriers involved deter ordinary investors.

A massive gap in inland fresh produce markets: High-quality live prawns cannot withstand long-distance transport, resulting in a chronic shortage of premium live prawns in major inland cities (such as the North American heartland, the core regions of Europe, the deserts of the Middle East and inland Asia), whilst frozen dead prawns offer a significantly inferior taste.

4. Technical Solutions and Workshop Layout Design

In response to the construction needs of industrial estates in the suburbs of major live prawn consumption centres, WoLize offers highly intensive ‘multi-storey vertical runways’ and ‘centralised processing’ turnkey solutions:

4.1 Design of Intelligent Spatial Layout for Production Workshops

Figure 2: Layout diagram of an indoor, multi-level, double-decker shrimp pond and centralised water treatment centre

Two- or three-tiered three-dimensional raceway matrix: Taking full advantage of the biological characteristics of shrimp as benthic organisms (which do not occupy space in the vertical water column), two or even three tiers of heavy-duty fibreglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) shallow-water raceway tanks are installed within standardised, temperature-controlled facilities. With a water depth of just 0.6-0.8 metres per tier, this increases the effective aquaculture floor area per unit of building floor space by two to three times.

Independent Closed-Loop Water Quality Zones: To prevent systemic risks, the facility is divided into physically isolated, independent RAS closed-loop modules, each comprising 4–6 raceways. Each module features its own skid-mounted water treatment unit, separate netting systems and disinfection access control, thereby achieving the highest level of SPF (Specific Pathogen-Free) biosecurity containment.

Automated shrimp harvesting channel: The end of each lane connects to a fluidised shrimp collection channel. At harvest time, there is no need for manual trawling in the tanks; by adjusting baffles and water levels, fully automated, non-destructive harvesting of live shrimp is achieved using water flow and specialised suction pumps.

4.2 Key Innovations in Core Equipment

Ultra-low-illuminance biomimetic light-controlled environment: To address the shrimp’s natural tendency to avoid light and their susceptibility to stress, the rearing facility features a fully enclosed, windowless design, with an LED dimming system emitting specific wavelengths (biased towards blue-green light) installed overhead. The brightness is automatically adjusted according to the moulting cycle and circadian rhythm, significantly reducing cannibalism amongst the shrimp.

Air-lift mixed-flow bottom-discharge aeration network: Traditional jet aerators generate excessively rapid water flow, which stirs up sediment from the tank bottom. This system utilises microporous ceramic tubes evenly laid across the tank floor for aeration, achieving an extremely high oxygen conversion rate. Furthermore, the water turbulence created by the rising bubbles perfectly facilitates the movement of uneaten feed towards the central or end-mounted drainage channels, thereby achieving true ‘still water, clean sediment’.

5. Technical Specifications and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Table 2: Comparison of WoLize’s new-generation land-based high-density recirculating aquaculture system for white-leg prawns

6. Comparative Analysis of Operational Data and Performance

Figure 3: Comparison of the variance in water quality fluctuations between clear water and biofloc systems, alongside the 90-day growth acceleration curve for shrimp

Linear growth in a constant temperature and ionic environment: Within the optimal growth temperature range of 28-30 °C and supported by automatic mineral supplementation, the Pacific white shrimp exhibited an almost perfect linear weight gain curve following the transfer of P12 pre-grown juveniles into the pond. Measurements showed that the moulting synchronisation rate increased by 40%, whilst the time required for the hard carapace to regenerate after moulting was reduced to within two hours, thereby directly preventing cannibalism during the soft-shell phase.

Water clarity and zero detection of Vibrio: Compared to the suspended solids concentrations of several hundred in the biofloc system, water clarity in the clear-water RAS system is maintained at over 60 centimetres year-round. Continuous water quality sampling reports show that Vibrio parahaemolyticus (the primary cause of EMS) has remained at ‘zero detection’ for 120 days under the dual interception of ozone and UV.

High economic efficiency per unit of energy consumption: Despite the use of complex physical filtration, thanks to the aeration flow field and gravity cascade design, the comprehensive electricity consumption for producing 1 kg of live prawns (25 g each) is only 8-10 kWh. Compared to the air freight price differential for live prawns from inland areas—which can run into tens of yuan per kilogram—the profit margin from local farming is extremely substantial.

7. Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: When farming marine prawns inland, far from the coastline (e.g. Beijing, Las Vegas, Frankfurt), where does the seawater come from?

A: This is precisely where the strategic value of this system’s ultra-high recirculation rate (>95 per cent) lies. When establishing facilities inland, there is no need to transport seawater; simply use local tap water or deep well water, to which the proprietary ‘shrimp-grade artificial seawater salt and trace element pack’ formulated by WoLize is added to create the required solution. Due to the extremely high recirculation rate, the cost of the artificial seawater amounts to less than 0.5 RMB per kilogram of shrimp, which is financially negligible.

Q2: Why do you advocate ‘Clear Water RAS’ rather than the industry-popular ‘Biofloc’ system?

A: Although Biofloc has lower initial construction costs, it is an extremely fragile and complex ecological ‘black box’. Should aeration be interrupted for just 10 minutes or the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio become unbalanced, the biofloc will rapidly die and decompose, leading to the mass death of all shrimp in the tank due to oxygen deprivation. The new-generation system utilises ‘Clear Water RAS’, which separates mechanical and biochemical processes; faeces and uneaten feed are physically removed from the pond by a microfilter before they can dissolve, resulting in exceptionally clear and controllable water quality. This is the true industrial-grade solution that safeguards commercial investment and offers an extremely high margin for error.

Q3: Do shed shrimp shells really pose a fatal risk of system blockage? How is this addressed?

A: Absolutely. Shrimps moult 40–50 times throughout their entire rearing cycle. At high densities (20 kg/m³), large quantities of lightweight, transparent shrimp shells can instantly clog the filter screens of the drum microfiltration unit, leading to frequent backwashing or even overflow, rendering the equipment ineffective. WoLize’s proprietary vortex pre-treatment physical separator was developed specifically for this purpose. Utilising differences in specific gravity and the principle of hydraulic centrifugation, it first collects the lightweight shrimp shells into a separate mesh bag, ensuring the long-term stability and reliability of the main treatment system.

7. Partnership Enquiries

Are you ready to tap into the most lucrative sector of the aquaculture industry and set up a live prawn farming facility right on the doorstep of a major metropolitan area? WoLize’s aquaculture engineering team offers a full-service, turnkey solution covering everything from commercial ROI calculations and the design of multi-storey facility blueprints to the supply of core equipment and on-site commissioning of artificial seawater systems.