RAS System Buyer's Guide & Tender Preparation
A Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) is not a piece of equipment — it is a tightly-coupled process plant. Buying one on price alone is the fastest way to destroy value. This guide walks investors, operators and EPCs through a bankable RAS procurement process.
1. Frame the project before you talk to suppliers
Ninety percent of RAS failures start in the first month of the project — the moment a sponsor picks up the phone and asks a vendor 'how much for 500 tonnes?'. Vendors will happily quote, but the numbers are meaningless until you fix the biology, the species life-stage, the site water and the energy envelope. Document these before any RFI.
- Species, life-stage, target size at harvest
- Annual production (t/year) and ramp-up curve
- Source water analysis (all major ions, temperature)
- Grid capacity (MW), tariff and reliability
- Discharge permit envelope
- Target unit economics ($/kg)
2. Design the process, not the equipment
A RAS is a mass-balance problem. Feed in → oxygen consumed, CO₂ produced, TAN produced, sludge produced. The equipment list is the consequence of that balance. Ask suppliers for their mass-balance calculation, not just a P&ID. Any vendor that won't share the calculation is not the right partner for a bankable project.
- Design feeding rate (kg feed / day at peak biomass)
- O₂ demand (typically 350–450 g O₂ / kg feed)
- TAN production (typically 25–35 g TAN / kg feed)
- CO₂ production (typically 1.375 × O₂ consumed)
- Sludge production (~30% of feed dry matter)
- Make-up water (typically 300–1,500 L/kg produced)
3. Specify performance, not brands
Employer's Requirements should describe outcomes: dissolved oxygen ≥ 6 mg/L, TAN ≤ 1 mg/L, CO₂ ≤ 15 mg/L, availability ≥ 98.5%, specific energy ≤ agreed kWh/kg. Do not name pumps, drum filter models or biofilter media. Naming brands hands negotiating leverage to the vendor and locks you out of a competitive tender.
4. Understand the CAPEX bands
Turnkey RAS CAPEX for salmon-class projects sits in a $12,000–$25,000 per annual tonne band once civil, MEP and biology working capital are included. Warm-water species (tilapia, barramundi, shrimp) sit lower ($6,000–$14,000/t). Anyone quoting materially outside these bands owes you a mass-balance and a schedule — probe hard.
5. OPEX is where projects live or die
Energy and feed together are 55–75% of OPEX for a RAS grow-out. Insist on 10-year OPEX modeling with an energy escalation scenario. eFCR of 1.1–1.3 is typical for salmon; 1.4–1.8 for warm-water species. Any guarantee outside that range should be interrogated.
6. Run a two-envelope tender
Technical envelope opens first. Only bidders that pass technical compliance move to commercial. This is standard for banks and DFIs and protects the project from a race-to-the-bottom on price.
7. Structure warranty and LDs correctly
24-month mechanical warranty from Commercial Operation Date. Performance liquidated damages tied to guaranteed capacity, eFCR and energy. LD cap of 10–15% of contract value. Total liability cap at 100%. Insist on parent-company guarantee where the local entity is thin.
Red flags to stop a tender
- Vendor won't share mass-balance calculation
- Warranty starts at delivery, not at COD
- No performance LDs offered
- Payment terms > 30% before FAT
- Silence on training hours and O&M manuals
- Sub-contracts biofilter media, oxygen and controls to unnamed third parties
- No reference plant of similar species + capacity in the last 5 years
Size it before you tender
FAQ
Supplier-neutral by design
FishMatch Group is not a reseller. We do not represent any single supplier. Every tender we support runs on a no-names basis until the Owner selects a shortlist.