Abstract
Aquaculture is attracting considerable attention due to market growth and potential environmental benefits but traditional coastal aquaculture systems create pollution and threaten marine ecosystems. Hence, there’s a need for more environmentally-friendly aquaculture approaches. Also, the prices of fish feed are rising, impacting the cost of conventional aquaculture systems as well as energy price fluctuation. The multi-purpose platform integrating marine renewable energy production, fish aquaculture, microalgae cultivation, and processing facilities has been designed to be economically viable in subtropical regions. The platform ensures year-round electricity supply by using ocean thermal energy conversion technology and producing hydrogen during surplus electricity periods. The Inclusive Impact Index (Triple-I) is employed to evaluate the sustainability of the multi-purpose platform in comparison to conventional aquaculture. The results reveal that while conventional aquaculture may be more profitable, the Triple-I evaluation indicates its unsustainability. In contrast, the multi-purpose platform offers a substantial environmental advantage, despite its higher initial investment cost.
