IsDeCa - Development and testing of a novel mixing technology

The main goal of this project is to bring the patented IsDeCa Batch Mixer technology from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences from "validated in lab" to "technology demonstrated in relevant environment". The Norwegian salmon farming industry is large, but also struggling with sea lice, disease and access to marine nutrients. The national ambition is to increase the current salmon production 5 times by 2050. Access to sustainable feed, with a high enough marine content, is listed as the second biggest problem to overcome, in order to achieve this. The current IsDeCa Mixer technology can compete against existing mixers on the market. In addition, it is able to add at least twice as much sustainable marine ingredients to the fish feed compared to any other machine on the market today. Great efforts has been made to reduce the structural complexity, while maintaining an operational excellence that exceeds current state of the art within this industry. However, based on feedback from several major mixer manufacturers in the world, IsDeCa must be verified at an industrial scale in order to prove the scalabitity of this technology. The main challenge for this project was to verify existing results from a small 60-liter prototype in a machine of industrial proportions.This was achieved with great sucess, and we now have a 1000 liter IsDeCa mixer with the same amazing abilities as the 60 liter mixer.

On a global scale, 50-60 million tons of biproducts from commercial fishing is thrown away every year. This is a vital source for marine oils, protein and phosphorous that could be utilized as a sustainable feed source for the world's fish farming industries. According to the published "Regjeringens Havstrategi", Norway's ambition is to increase the current output from fish farming with 500% by 2050. Second to sea lice, access to feed, with a high enough marine content - from sustainable and environmentally friendly sources - is currently the most crucial bottleneck. Sustainable feed is a major key to the desired growth in this sector. IsDeCa addresses this very problem by enabling the direct use of biproducts like hydrolyzed ensilage from commercial fishing and/or algae slurry in much higher contents. The biproducts can be used both in fish feed and in animal feed, reducing the need for imported soy protein.