DESMI offers a one-stop shop for aquaculture with a full range of pump solutions

As the aquaculture market grows exponentially to meet the world’s growing food demand

there is an equal developing need for reliable equipment. DESMI’s new High Flow - Low Pressure pumps not only fill a key need, but they round out DESMI’s aquaculture portfolio, meaning DESMI can provide a near full supply of pumping solutions for fish farming.

“Fish farms all over the world are now getting built, many more are being planned, and the trend is speeding up,” says Jacob Foldager, Business Development Manager of DESMI Aquaculture.

“A technology shift is changing the need for pumps in the market”, he says. “Previously, customers asked for large propeller pumps – both for Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and flow-through systems. Today, land-based aquaculture farms are designed with dry-installed centrifugal pumps with high flow and low-pressure capabilities. Such pumps are more reliable, easier to maintain, and they can provide higher efficiency over a broader capacity span”.

Pumping innovation for aquaculture

DESMI has been in deep discussions for several years with the OEMs of aquaculture systems to understand their requirements for pumps. “In that dialogue, it became quite clear how we should design the new aquaculture pumps to fulfil their needs. One example is that most piping systems in large fish farms are below ground, and it makes sense to have a pump that can pump the water downward instead of horizontally or upward”. Thus, the pumps come in different configurations: horizontal, vertical, and horizontally downward. “This kind of configuration can make a big difference for many of these big fish farms”.

DESMI named its new pump series High Flow – Low Pressure. The name relates to the fact that very large volumes of water need to be recirculated at very low pressure (0.2-1.0 bar) in RAS farms. Conventional centrifugal pumps are designed to have optimal efficiency at higher pressures, and therefore a different hydraulic design has been used for DESMI’s new pump series.

Currently, DESMI is providing a large number of these new High Flow - Low Pressure pumps for large aquaculture facilities in Norway and Denmark. The new pump series is also relevant for wellboats, where the vertical configuration ensures circulation in fish tanks during transportation to and from the nets and pens.

More than just a pump

Jacob Foldager notes that, in general, DESMI provides pumps with a very high efficiency and high reliability. The company’s pumps have been used in various industries where reliability is vital, such as district heating, cooling, defence, industry, and marine. “That is where we come from. And for aquaculture, they must run 24/7, 365 days a year and sometimes in remote places. This reliability is truly essential”.

With DESMI, customers do not just get a pump – they can get a full solution that includes a cloud-based, IoT surveillance solution. This IoT based pump monitoring can furthermore be integrated into the customers’ SCADA systems.

Global ambition

The new High Flow - Low Pressure pumps are built in an optimized, cost-effective design using modern tools such as FEM and CFD in the design-process. Added to that, the flexibility in downward configuration and the six different sizes are ranging from 200 m3/h all the way up to 6400 m3/h.

DESMI can now supply all the vital pump functions in the aquaculture industry. “This is a huge step for DESMI. It is helping us to achieve our overall ambition to become one of the most important pump suppliers to aquaculture in the world”.