Salmon farmer is facilitating a circular economy at its new smolt plant.
The companies Columbi Farms and Antec Biogas are both in the process of finalizing their preliminary projects, and will establish themselves in the industrial area in Steinkjer municipality, Central Norway, where SalMar and Nippon Gases have already established themselves.
The engine behind the investment is SalMar’s large hatchery, in a building of 18,000 square metres. The entire facility will be completed next year. The first construction stage provides a capacity of approximately 20 million smolts annually.
EUR 20 million
According to Egil Andersen in Antec Biogas, there is talk of building a biogas plant for over NOK 200 million (EUR 200 million) in the first construction stage for them, reports Trønder-Avisa.
At the same time, Columbi Farms plans to establish the country’s largest vertical farm with a growing area of 10,000 square meters spread over a 15-metre high building inside the industrial area.
Both are expected to announce investment decisions just after Christmas.
Circular
Columbi Farms is wholly owned by Columbi Salmon, which worked to establish a land-based salmon farm, as well as salad production in an aquaponics facility, in Ostend in Belgium. Columbi Salmon is part-owned by SalMar owner Kverva.
“Our waste products are perceived as a problem, even though it is a resource. We have participated in the preliminary project for Antec Biogas, which has been important for us to be able to do something intelligent with our waste. Circular economy is a stated objective in the SalMar system,” says Karl Christian Aag in SalMar to Trønder-Avisa.
SalMar will contribute sludge to the biogas plant and nitrogen-rich water to the salad production planned under the auspices of Columbi Farms, which will also use carbon dioxide from the biogas plant in the cultivation of vegetables.
