INTER AQUA Advance - Company Presentation

Mr. Knud P. Brockdorff, the current chairman of INTER AQUA Advance, originally developed the off-shore fish farming technology in Denmark. Having completed the largest of its kind at that time with a 1,500 ton yearly production capacity, Mr. Brockdorff soon sold that company, realizing that a future major development in the Aquaculture industry would lie in land-based units, where the conditions are controllable to a degree not afforded by conventional sea-farming technologies.

The Advent of Recirculation Aquaculture Systems
In 1978, Mr. Brockdorff initiated a working relationship with the Danish Aquaculture Institute and its leader, Karl Ivar Dahl Madsen. This relationship was formed with the purpose of developing the necessary technology for recirculating land-based fish farming systems. During this cooperation, 17 then existing water treatment systems were tested and compared and the best chosen as the “heart” of these first 1st and 2nd generation aquaculture systems. INTER AQUA Advance subsequently sold approximately 100 of these 1st and 2nd generation systems.

The Necessity of Improved Biological Treatment Technology
Over time, it was discovered that in order to maintain increasingly intensive fish productions, the existing water treatment technologies in the 1st and 2nd generation systems were not satisfactory, which led Mr. Brockdorff to start developing a novel technology in which all the weaknesses of these treatment systems were eliminated. The major weakness in the 1st and 2nd generation technologies was discovered to lie in the biological treatment technology, at that time consisting primarily of fixed-film technology such as submerged stationary biofilters. As the production was intensified, these technologies gradually developed a tendency to clog and became unable to sustain the necessary nitrification capacity for the increased feed loading. At the same time, market developments in the Aquaculture industry demanded that production costs could be decreased. Consequently, the high energy demand from high pumping heads, comparatively large foot-prints and inability to absorb nutrient fluctuations and maintain stable performance over longer periods of time needed to be improved.

A Technological Jump - The Beginning of a New Era
In 1993 after six years of intensive development work, the Moving Bed Bio-reactor based CLEARWATER Low-Space Bio-Reactor was ready for use, was patented and thoroughly tested in several existing production plants over a 2-year period. After these successful trials, the new “heart” of the water treatment system for land-based recirculating aquaculture production plants was ready for marketing.

The first 3rd Generation CLEARWATER RAS plant for salmon smolt production in Scotland was set into operation about 10 years ago and has performed above expectations ever since. Having been designed for a maximum stocking density of 40 kg/m3, the 3rd generation CLEARWATER technology has enabled the managers to maintain stocking densities as high as 100 kg/m3 - i.e. approximately 40% above the design criterion - for extended periods while still being able to maintain superb water quality with turbidities below 1 NTU.

Since then, the smolt plant has been the design base from which many subsequently further developed and improved 3rd generation systems have been constructed. Several of the older 2nd generation systems have also later been upgraded with the 3rd generation CLEARWATER technology.

Wanting Nothing Less than Perfection
- Bio-media and MBBR design are intimately linked
Having perfected the Moving Bed technology through the patented internal cleaning system in the CLEARWATER technology, Mr. Brockdorff proceeded to pursue further improvements by optimizing the design of the bio-media to provide the best possible cleaning ability for maintaining a young, thin and highly active bio-film layer.

Since it became evident that even with the improved bio-media cleaning capacity of the CLEARWATER technology, the ability to prevent clogging of the internal surfaces of the bio-media were limited by the hydrodynamic properties of the bio-media itself.
This discovery of the interactions between bio-media design and the aeration/cleaning properties of the Moving Bed Bio-reactor led to the development of the CURLER ADVANCE X-1 bio-media. By providing a bio-media with an open structure, the frictional forces from the water is allowed access to all the internal surfaces of the profile from all directions without limitation.
However, in order to maintain the invention's cost-effectiveness, it was also a requirement that the product could be made from an extrusion process. The complexity of extruding an open profile of high quality should lead to a development stage that lasted for about 4 years until finally reaching perfection.

We are now very proud of being able to offer this exclusive and unique bio-media, which we believe is unsurpassed by any other product for biological filtration in the market.

As an alternative solution for use in mechanically agitated denitrification reactors as well as when used in high-strenght industrial wastewater with high fibrous content, the CYLINDER X-0 bio-media is the most recent product in the BIO-division's bio-media product line. The shortness of of element along with the open internal structure reduces the friction loss of the water passing through the element, thereby also providing excellent cleaning capacity.

INTER AQUA Advance is the only company in the world that supplies the 3rd generation technology, which enables the most cost-effective, safe and stable water treatment system.

Growth and Expansion
- seeking new markets

With the successful completion of several 3rd generation CLEARWATER RAS projects, INTER AQUA Advance formed a separate BIO-Divion in 2006.
This division was formed in order to expand into new market areas, such as wastewater treatment as well as to provide IAA's bio-media and CLEARWATER Bio-reactor technology as separate products to international companies in close cooperation worldwide.

This has led to the establishment of cooperation agreements with a leading supplier of wastewater treatment in the United Arab Emirates, and the subsequent commissioning of three 1000 m3/day municipal wastewater treatment plants under an exclusive license agreement using the CLEARWATER moving bed bioreactors and CURLER ADVANCE X-1 bio-media.

With this first step, we anticipate further developments into industrial wastewater treatment with several other cooperation partners underway, such as the business cooperation in Romania for the construction of compact mobile treatment plants for industrial wastewater, which is now underway.