REVIEW article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Waste Management in Agroecosystems
Current Technologies for Nutrient Recovery in Aquaponic Systems: A Review
Provisionally accepted
Drishya Nishanth1,2
Chythra Somanathan Nair1
Ramya Manoharan1
Radhakrishnan Subramanian1,2
Irfan Salim1
Sajid Maqsood2,3
Abdul Jaleel1,2*- 1United Arab Emirates University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- 2ASPIRE Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands (ARIFSID), United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain,, ASPIRE, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- 3Department of Food Science, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 15551, United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aquaponic systems are integrated food production systems that recycle nutrients through the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Nutrient recovery in aquaponic systems faces major challenges such as imbalances in nutrients, inefficiencies in nutrient extraction, and scalability constraints. Various methods have been investigated to address these challenges, including physical approaches (e.g., filtration and sedimentation), chemical strategies (e.g., struvite precipitation), and biological techniques (e.g., microbial digestion and nutrient mineralization). Additionally, hybrid strategies that are a combination of these methods are also reviewed for their potential to improve nutrient recovery and system performance in aquaponic systems. Emerging technologies such as hybrid biofilters and phototrophic bioconversion show promise in addressing these challenges, though they require further research for full-scale implementation. This review comprehensively examines the sources and composition of aquaponic sludge, the role of macro-and micronutrients, and critically analyses various physical, chemical, and biological nutrient recovery strategies. It also highlights innovative approaches and their integration potential. By synthesizing the strengths and limitations of these methods, this review provides a roadmap for optimizing nutrient recovery to advance low-waste, circular aquaponic models.
Keywords: Circular agriculture model, Hybrid approaches, microbial processes, Sludge Treatment, Waste Management
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nishanth, Somanathan Nair, Manoharan, Subramanian, Salim, Maqsood and Jaleel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Abdul Jaleel, abdul.jaleel@uaeu.ac.ae
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.