Danish manufacturer Advansor has supplied a transcritical CO2 (R744) rack equipped with a chiller module to Hima Seafood, a Norwegian company that operates the world’s largest land-based recycling aquaculture system trout farm.
The trout farm is based in Rjukan, Norway, and commenced operations in 2025. It measures 320m (1,049ft) long and has a floor area of 27,000m (88,582ft) split over two stories. Hima Seafood said 8,000 metric tons of trout will be farmed at the site annually.
Cooling and freezing: Advansor’s SteelXL transcritical CO2 rack with chiller module provides both cooling for the fish pools, storage and production facilities along with freezing for the facility’s flake ice machine, which produces 30 metric tons of ice per day.
- The rack provides a cooling capacity of 360kW (102TR) at –2°C (28°F) and 170kW (48TR) of capacity for freezing at –33°C (–27°F).
- Advansor said Hima Seafood chose CO2 over ammonia (R717) and that its priorities for the project included a reliable system that kept constant water temperatures and a short lead time.
- Advansor’s recently released a new version of its SteelXL rack, which offers a maximum cooling capacity of 2.7MW (767TR), 1.9MW (540TR) of freezing, up to 4MW (1,137TR) of heating and 0.5MW (142TR) of air-conditioning, all on one frame.
Sustainability-focused: In addition to using a CO2 refrigeration system, Hima Seafood’s Rjukan site also recycles nearly all of its water and uses recycled heat.
- A total of 99.3% of the facility’s waste water is recycled, according to the company.
- Advansor said heating for the facility comes courtesy of the waste heat produced by a nearby data center.
NatRefs in Norwegian seafood: In addition to Hima Seafood, Norwegian seafood processing company Pelagia uses natural refrigerant-based equipment.
- Pelagia’s fishmeal facility in Måloy, Norway, uses two high-temperature helium (R704) heat pumps from Norwegian manufacturer Enerin. The two heat pumps provide 1.6MW (455TR) of steam for producing fish oil.
