A small prawn hatchery runs air blowers feeding diffusers in every larval tank, seawater intake and transfer pumps, algae culture lighting for live feed, and monitoring that reports temperature and dissolved oxygen. Tanks are warm and dense, so oxygen drops fast when air stops. Cyclone season along the Queensland and Northern Territory coast brings long outages. Fuel deliveries are hardest exactly when they are needed most.
The electrolyser runs on off-peak power before a storm or from a wind turbine, filling a buffer at 30 bar or less that keeps for weeks. When the grid fails, the battery and UPS-mode inverter take over instantly and the fuel cell carries the blowers. There are no fuel runs once the road is cut.
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At 15 kW continuous, the system suits a small hatchery's blowers, pumps and lighting. Grow-out ponds with paddlewheel aerators across many hectares, and heated tanks run electrically, are far larger loads and would need a larger or multi-unit setup sized in a pilot, or a different supply. Round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so this is about protecting larval runs during outages, not cutting daily costs.
Not across a full grow-out farm. Paddlewheels on many ponds add up to far more than 15 kW. A small hatchery building is the realistic fit for one unit, and anything bigger would be a larger or multi-unit setup sized in a pilot.
Coastal sites need equipment housed and protected from salt spray, the same as any switchboard. Siting, enclosure and ventilation would be part of a pilot install plan, worked out for your shed and how exposed it is to onshore weather.
Yes. The electrolyser needs filtered, de-ionised fresh water, about 9 litres per kg of hydrogen, and most returns from the fuel cell. Seawater cannot be used directly, so a small filtered rainwater or bore supply is needed alongside the hatchery's seawater intake.
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