Removal of the off-flavor compounds geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol from recirculating aquaculture system water by ultrasonically induced cavitation

With its high economic impact, off-flavor in fish is still one of the most serious problems in the aquaculture industry worldwide. Until now, the highly cost- and time-intensive, as well as capacity demanding depuration procedure by moving the fish to clean and odor-free water for a certain time prior to harvest is the only reliable way to counteract off-flavors in aquaculture. Alternative strategies and processes for efficient off-flavor prevention are still lacking. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential of ultrasonic water treatment to decrease the concentration of the relevant off-flavor compounds geosmin (GSM) and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) in aquaculture water. Therefore, different water matrices, varying in their organic and inorganic load and composition (tap water, RAS fresh water, RAS sea water), were spiked with 2-MIB and GSM standard and subsamples of 250 mL were subsequently treated for 15 min using a lab-scale ultrasound transducer at 850 kHz. For verification samples from commercial RAS containing biogenic 2-MIB and GSM were treated equally. The effects of ultrasound frequency and salinity on the removability of 2-MIB and GSM via ultrasonic treatment were investigated by comparing the removal efficiency of high (850 kHz) vs. low (20 kHz) frequency ultrasound and by adding artificial sea salt (10 ppt) to different freshwater samples prior to ultrasound treatment, respectively. Results have demonstrated that ultrasonically induced cavitation significantly reduces the tested off flavor compounds GSM and 2-MIB in all tested water types, seemingly irrespective of the (in)organic load. In general, the reduction of GSM was slightly higher compared to that of 2-MIB. Furthermore, the reduction of tested off-flavor compounds was significantly enhanced at high frequency ultrasound (850 kHz) compared to low-frequency ultrasound (20 kHz). The addition of artificial sea salt to fresh water samples caused an additional improvement in removability of both off-flavor compounds. Our results evidence high frequency ultrasound as a potential treatment process for significant removal of the relevant off-flavor compounds 2-MIB and GSM from RAS process water. In particular, the seemingly low dependency of the ultrasound-induced removal of GSM and 2-MIB on the organic and inorganic process water load predestines ultrasonically induced cavitation as a potential strategy for off-flavor prevention in RAS compared to alternative strategies such as advanced oxidation processes or adsorption processes. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.