“The two investments go hand in hand. With the new vessel we will be able to handle the new, larger volume of fish feed produced by our Norway facility,” Tore Gunnar Wikdal, COO of BioMar A/S, told FeedNavigator.
BioMar has invested NOK 436m ($53m) in the line, which is producing fish feed destined for salmon farms mainly in Norway but potentially around the world. Production went live on 25 October, increasing the output of BioMar’s Karmøy facility by around 70% to 340,000+ metric tons annually.
BioMar said the line would have one of the highest hourly output capacities of any single fish feed production line in the world and that it features “advanced technologies” that minimize its impact on the natural environment.
For example, an air processing system handles all air emissions from the factory in four scrubbing towers that use cold seawater to scrub emissions. This seawater also provides cooling for the production line, an arrangement that is said to make for a “high degree of energy efficiency” and an “environmentally friendly cooling system”.
New feed carrier
The opening of the new line coincided with the arrival of the MS Nyskund - BioMar’s new 2700 metric ton capacity feed carrier - at the Karmøy facility.
Contributing to BioMar’s sustainability program, this latest addition to BioMar’s fleet is powered by an LNG (liquefied natural gas) engine built by Rolls Royce. MS Nyskund is BioMar’s second LNG powered carrier - the first was the smaller MS Høydal, which was the world’s first LNG powered cargo vessel when it came into operation in 2012.
“In this new ship we have further enhanced the technology seen on the MS Høydal. It is powered by a next generation LNG engine, offering better energy utilization than previous technology. It doesn’t need to use diesel oil in order to generate electricity; instead, it generates electricity from the LNG engine shaft, reducing emissions,” said Wikdal.
He explained that this is because it is equipped with a Rolls Royce HSG (Hybrid Shaft Generator) propulsion system.
“The Hybrid Shaft Generator will generate electrical power for the ship even if the engine power output varies, saving fuel. The HSG can also act as a propulsion motor (PTI) providing an alternative power source should LNG becomes unavailable,” he said.
He added that the ship had been designed with a very long reach on the loading frame - an important feature to facilitate unloading into feeding systems as fish farms move further off-shore.
Whereas the MS Høydal was designed for transporting feed in bulk, the MS Nyskund can transport feed both in bulk and in packaging, meeting the industry-wide demand for flexibility that is being driven by a trend towards customized feed formulations.
“Increasingly, customers want different types of feeds, whether that is high energy feed or feed formulated with certain pigment. This vessel is built to carry both cargo and packaged feed, offering a high degree of flexibility,” said Nikdal.
The new ship was formally handed over at the beginning of October at the Tersan shipyard - the site responsible for construction. The ship is owned and operated by NSK Shipping.