Our King Prawn Commerical Demonstrator can grow and harvest commercial scale batches of warm-water king prawns, in a series of indoor RAS tanks. Batches of Post-Larvae (PLs) prawns will begin in the nursery tank and then progress to the three main growing tanks, before being harvested monthly and sold commercially through Eden Valley Prawns. The relatively small scale of our facility is designed to demonstrate what is possible. Future adopters of this technology would be able to invest to scale up the operation.
Hosted by project partner RASTECH Ltd, at their Guardbridge R&D site (located near St Andrews, Scotland), the RASTECH-designed polytunnel building and indoor RAS has been planned with as much embedded circularity as possible. The whole system aims to minimise input costs (not least relating to energy) and maximise potential incomes streams, including through the commercialisation and utilisation of wastes.
Dr Andrew Whiston (RASTECH CEO) and his team are also hosting our Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr Rajesh Manchi. Rajesh supports the running of the demonstrator and is carrying out a series of R&D experiments and brings a wealth of expertise to our project from his role as RAS scientist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research) in India.
The illustration ‘The King Prawn Demonstrator Explained‘ describes the recirculating system, highlighting its key compenent parts and circular features.
Watch these videos on our YouTube channel @UKSustainableKingPrawnProject
To register your interest in a physical IN-PERSON tour, either fill out the form on the Contacts Page or email kingprawn@exeter.ac.uk
**STOP PRESS** Commercial production is starting up now we have access to juvenilles again and in-person tours are expected from May 2025.
Production has been impossible since Oct 2024 as a result of difficulties importing Post Larvae into the UK which have been entirely beyond our control! This is one of the key reasons why setting up a UK based hatchery is an imperative condition required to grow and scale a new sector.
These infographic posters to learn all about the Demonstrator, how it works, the prawn growing process, its circularity and more (scroll left and right to view).
We would like to say a huge thank you to MSc Science Communication graduates Abbie Bramwell and Natalie Bridge and artist Jonny Glover for their work developing the suite of interpretation materials, also supported by the RASTECH team, which help showcase the Demonstratorās potential.
