SwissShrimp AG is the largest shrimp farm in Europe, located in Rheinfelden, Switzerland. To guarantee high-quality shrimp, they needed a reliable and robust analysis system to monitor the seawater components. The solution: a highly automated and precise ion chromatography system from Metrohm.
Growing shrimps in Switzerland
Who would have thought of Switzerland when talking about shrimp production?
SwissShrimp was established over 10 years ago and developed into the biggest shrimp farm in Europe. The farm grows local and antibiotic-free Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) in 16 large indoor pools.
To guarantee high-quality shrimp, the seawater components, especially the toxic parameters ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate, have to be controlled regularly. For this purpose, SwissShrimp needed a highly automated and extremely efficient solution.
With the ion chromatography (IC) system from Metrohm, SwissShrimp measures up to 15 different ions, fully automatically: Press a button and walk away.
Quality control of seawater with ion chromatography
At SwissShrimp, the quality of the seawater is determined several times per day, making an efficient and precise analysis method indispensable. Here, ion chromatography comes into play: IC is a multi-parameter method, which means that various analytes can be determined in just one measurement.
In the case of SwissShrimp, the toxic parameters (ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate) that result from the shrimps' biological processes as well as other salt water parameters (e.g. chloride, sodium, magnesium, and many more) are monitored closely using IC.
With Metrohm's IC solution, SwissShrimp does not only run the analysis, but also sample preparation (Inline Ultrafiltration and Inline Dilution) fully automatically.
Learn more about inline sample preparation techniques from Metrohm:
Analyzing water samples and water constituents
Download this monograph for step-by-step instructions and calculation examples for the determination of different parameters of water samples, such as physical and gaseous parameters, anions, cations, and other water constituents.