Land based Salmon farming in Iceland made possible by Reverse Osmosis
On the Vestmannaeyjar islands, off the south-coast of Iceland, lies LAXEY’s salmon farm. This facility mimics the natural Atlantic lifecycle of salmon – from egg to market-ready salmon – in a controlled environment.
Where traditional salmon farms depend on open sea cages, Laxey farms its salmon completely on land.
From an operational perspective, this is no easy feat. Every phase of a salmon’s lifecycle requires water with a different level of salinity, which makes mimicking the natural process extra complex.
A project of this scope required Hatenboer-Water to design a custom Reverse Osmosis unit set-up with the largest capacity to date.
The process requires three reverse osmosis units, each producing 1,260 m³/day of fresh water, with a dedicated bypass line on each unit to slightly increase the product water salinity. Thus, the entire daily production totals 4000-4400 m3/day.
Depending on the needs per lifecycle phase, the water is mixed with 5-10% seawater to achieve the correct salinity. As the salmon are moved from facility to facility, most of the water is re-used and combined with water from local boreholes.
How the natural lifecycle is preserved
The lifecycle of salmon starts in a hatchery. The eggs are incubated and grow into young salmon, also known as smolt, that continue to grow in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). During this phase, the smolt needs specific conditions to transition from fresh water to salt water, so the entire process, from water quality to temperature and oxygen, is kept under strict control.
The RO systems remove salinity from the incoming water supply, creating a stable basis for controlled blending with seawater. This allows LAXEY to maintain the water quality at the right level of salinity consistently in a phase where conditions must be tightly managed.
The last phase of a salmon’s life takes place in an outgrow module, where the salmon reach their market weight of 5-6 kilos.
Phase two for LAXEY
As LAXEY grows as a company, they’re expanding with a second, larger, smolt station, extra outgrow modules, and scaled production capacity up to 36,000 tons of salmon per year – all in need of carefully controlled water.
LAXEY’s expansion builds on an existing relationship with Hatenboer-Water. Since 2023, the company has operated a Hatenboer-Water Reverse Osmosis system supplying desalinated water to the Phase I hatchery.
Over the years, the installation has become an integral part of the operation, supported by regular contact between LAXEY and Hatenboer-Water’s service team. The experience gained during Phase I provided a strong foundation for the next stage of the project and the continued collaboration on Phase II.
Proper safe and high-quality water treatment opens doors to a world of possibilities, and we are proud to contribute to the sustainable development of land-based salmon farming.
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