INTER AQUA Advance supplies complete turn-key intensive recirculation systems for industrial-scale production of both freshwater and marine fish species. Through our own development of state-of-the-art technologies and extensive experience on a global scale, INTER AQUA Advance has developed a concept that provides customers with the best and most cost-effective production units capable of meeting almost any environmental requirements.
Mr. Knud P. Brockdorff, the current chairman of INTER AQUA Advance, originally developed the off-shore fish farming technology in Denmark. Having completed the largest of its kind at that time with a 1,500 ton yearly production capacity, Mr. Brockdorff soon sold that company, realizing that a future major development in the Aquaculture industry would lie in land-based units, where the conditions are controllable to a degree not afforded by conventional sea-farming technologies.
The Advent of Recirculation Aquaculture Systems
In 1978, Mr. Brockdorff initiated a working relationship with the Danish Aquaculture Institute and its leader, Karl Ivar Dahl Madsen. This relationship was formed with the purpose of developing the necessary technology for recirculating land-based fish farming systems. During this cooperation, 17 then existing water treatment systems were tested and compared and the best chosen as the “heart” of these first 1st and 2nd generation aquaculture systems. INTER AQUA Advance subsequently sold approximately 100 of these 1st and 2nd generation systems.
The Necessity of Improved Biological Treatment Technology
Over time, it was discovered that in order to maintain increasingly intensive fish productions, the existing water treatment technologies in the 1st and 2nd generation systems were not satisfactory, which led Mr. Brockdorff to start developing a novel technology in which all the weaknesses of these treatment systems were eliminated. The major weakness in the 1st and 2nd generation technologies was discovered to lie in the biological treatment technology, at that time consisting primarily of fixed-film technology such as submerged stationary biofilters. As the production was intensified, these technologies gradually developed a tendency to clog and became unable to sustain the necessary nitrification capacity for the increased feed loading. At the same time, market developments in the Aquaculture industry demanded that production costs could be decreased. Consequently, the high energy demand from high pumping heads, comparatively large foot-prints and inability to absorb nutrient fluctuations and maintain stable performance over longer periods of time needed to be improved.
A Technological Jump - The Beginning of a New Era
In 1993 after six years of intensive development work, the Moving Bed Bio-reactor based CLEARWATER Low-Space Bio-Reactor was ready for use, was patented and thoroughly tested in several existing production plants over a 2-year period. After these successful trials, the new “heart” of the water treatment system for land-based recirculating aquaculture production plants was ready for marketing.
The first 3rd Generation CLEARWATER RAS plant for salmon smolt production in Scotland was set into operation about 10 years ago and has performed above expectations ever since. Having been designed for a maximum stocking density of 40 kg/m3, the 3rd generation CLEARWATER technology has enabled the managers to maintain stocking densities as high as 100 kg/m3 - i.e. approximately 40% above the design criterion - for extended periods while still being able to maintain superb water quality with turbidities below 1 NTU. |