Water treatment for Aquaculture
Our history – your future
With focus on land-based fish farming, NP Innovation have refined the design of drumfilters, discfilters and CO2 degassers for optimizing the water quality in aquaculture systems since 2012.
However, the development behind our world-leading products began much earlier. The company was founded in Sweden in 2012 by entrepreneur Nils-Åke Persson, who first encountered the fish farming industry in the late 70s. Being a constructional and industrial engineer, specialized in energy saving through, among other things, heat exchangers and heat pumps, he saw opportunities. With the help from others within the industry, he began the development of heat pump technology intended for aquacultures.
Made in Sweden
In 1984, work on the development of water purifying technology was started. And by the time NP Innovation was founded, the drumfilter developed during the 80s and 90s had become the world-leading industry standard. Within the first year our products were introduced to the market. We have been growing steadily ever since, with focus on further developing the established purification technology in aquacultures.
Today our products, based on the technology developed during the 80s, are used in the majority of the world’s land-based aquacultures with circulating water.
And we’re proud of the fact that a small country like Sweden delivers the technology used all over the world. It shows an evident strength in Swedish water treatment.
It’s interesting to work with something that does good in the world. It’s much more rewarding to talk with people about what we’re doing when there’s a positive effect to show for it.”
Nils-Åke Persson founded NP Innovation in 2012, but the development of the Malmö based company’s products started years earlier.
It was in the end of the 70s that Nils-Åke Persson for the first time met an employee at Sydkraft’s (a Swedish power company) aquaculture, and it was here that his interest in aquaculture started. At the time he was working as a constructional and industrial engineer focusing on energy saving through heat exchangers and heat pumps. Thanks to his interest in development and his technical knowledge he was able, with the help from others within the industry, to develop a heat pump technology that increased the water temperature.
- And in doing so we were able to improve the possibility for the fish to grow bigger – faster, he says.
In 1984 he started his own business, working with water purifying technology in aqua-cultures. The company grew fast, and in 2002 Nils-Åke sold it and decided to retire. After a couple of years of leave the longing to work became too great and he took a job with Nordic Water in Gothenburg, a company in municipal water treatment.
- Pretty soon I wanted to get back into the aqua culture business. There is something special about that industry, something personal. It’s a relatively small industry – worldwide – and we had become something of a group of friends. Even though we sometimes competed we had become friends who supported each other when needed, he says. And in 2012 NP Innovation was founded.
The drumfilter that Nils-Åke’s first company had developed during the 80s and 90s was now a world standard within the business. With his son Jonas and an engineer in technology design he now wanted to further develop the purifying technology that had established itself within the aquaculture industry.
- Not a lot had happened up until 2012, so the space was there. Already a year later we had employed more people and launched our products in the market. The company has continued to grow steadily ever since.
Today NP Innovation has a turnover of around SEK 100 million and sells its products to land-based aquacultures all over the world. Nils-Åke has been retired since the turn of the year 2023 but remains on the board and as a partner in the company. He is proud of what he and his colleagues have accomplished and is looking forward to watching the company continue to grow.
- It’s interesting to work with something that does good in the world. It’s much more rewarding to talk with people about what we’re doing when there’s a positive effect to show for it. It is greatly appreciated every time we launch new products. It feels good that what we do is important for the environment and our waters.
NP Innovation’s products, based on the technology that Nils-Åke started to develop during the 80s, are today used in the majority of the world’s land-based aquacultures with circulating water. The vision is to grow with their own products and to double the turnover within the near future.
- It’s kind of funny that a country like Sweden, with hardly any aquacultures at all, delivers the technology that is used all over the world. It shows an evident strength in Swedish water treatment, he concludes.