A new equipment for production of oxygen installed at the Silfurstjarnan
– saves a considerable sum of money each year in transport of liquid oxygen
“Oxygen is a fundamental factor in the activities of fish farms and until now we have had to transport liquid oxygen from Reykjavik at considerable expense. With this new equipment we save considerable transport costs and produce oxygen locally,” says Benedikt Kristjánsson, the director of Silfurstjarnan in Öxarfjördur. The company was the first Icelandic fish farm to buy Gazcon equipment from Gaia ehf., company that provide environmental-friendly solutions, but they specialize in sale and installation of oxygen-producing generators for companies in the fishing industry and other food industries. The fish farm Silfurstjarnan produces about 1100 tons fish each year, both salmon and arctic char. More than 90% of the production is farmed salmon but the most important market is USA. In the production process of the fish farm oxygen is mixed with the water, which is pumped into the fish raising tanks and for that purpose an equipment has until now been connected with a supply tank of liquid oxygen. “We have had to transport the oxygen from Reykjavik by specially equipped lorries at considerable expense as it is a long way to go,” Benedikt says, but the new generator has been used for a few weeks at the Silfurstjarnan. Benedikt says the equipment is promising compared with the experience they have now. Representatives from the manufacturer Gazcon A/S in Denmark were present at the initiation of the equipment.
Investment gives back quick benefits
Kristján Pétur Hilmarsson, sales manager for Gaia ehf., says the system at Silfurstjarnan can produce more than 140 m³ of oxygen at 95% purity per hour. A perfect control and monitor equipment with flow meter, dew point meter pressure meter, water purity meter etc. are connected to the generator. “We consider it important that our systems need low maintenance and return to the buyers their investment in short time. It has in fact been so, and we are pretty sure that it is also the case for fish farms in the South of Iceland in spite of shorter transport distances, the payback period would be a little longer, but the lifetime of the equipment is at least 10 – 15 years at normal conditions,” Kristján Pétur says but besides selling the equipment Gaia’s team carry out the installation and service of the equipment. “Fish farms need a lot of oxygen in their activities and the further oxygen has to be transported from the distributors, the more profitable it will be to change over to a production locally. But in all cases we consider this step to pay up fast,” Kristján says.
Lately, Gaia ehf. has installed ozone generator in fish drying companies in this country where good results have been achieved in the struggle against disagreeable smell both indoors and outdoors. Furthermore Kristján mentions that the same equipment as was installed at Silfurstjarnan in fact can produce nitrogen and could be an option for many food producing companies that need such things in their activities.
A press release March/April 2013