Intensive aquaculture with the smallest environmental footprint

In 2017 Billund Aquaculture won the tender to design and construct one of the world’s largest, most intensive RAS for salmon smolt production in Tasmania.

With Australia’s tight environmental laws, Billund Aquaculture was under pressure to push process optimisation to an unprecedented level. Not only was the Whale Point facility to have a capacity of 750 tons biomass, but the designs also had to provide maximum flexibility so production could easily be adapted to demand.

To deliver all that with minimum environmental impact, the design engineers came up with a unique combination of cutting-edge technologies. 

One innovation was to pair a full-flow ozone treatment system with an intensive wastewater treatment system. At the same time, the water purification setup had to be dimensioned to serve the largest smolt production tanks that Billund Aquaculture had ever produced and the longest pipeline for fish transportation, stretching over 1.2km. 

Completed in 2019, the RAS facility has more than lived up to expectation. The owner – Huon Aquaculture – is now producing the largest smolts in the southern hemisphere.

Completed in 2019, the RAS facility has more than lived up to the expectation. The owner – Huon Aquaculture – is now producing the largest smolts in the Southern Hemisphere with the lowest consumption of water across all projects globally.

For Billund Aquaculture, this large and challenging project was a technology gamechanger. The knowledge and experience gained underway continues to benefit new projects