Industrial Biotechnology
Industrial Biotechnology
Industrial Biotechnology covers the full spectrum of manufacturing, using microbes (bacteria, mold, algae, yeast, and fungi) as the catalyst. Industrial products include food, drugs, enzymes, nutritional supplements, biofuels, and chemical intermediates.
Key Issues
The use of microorganisms in production processes requires a sterile or aseptic environment throughout upstream operations to prevent contamination and maintain product quality. For highly aerobic fermentations, oxygen transfer, mixing, and heat removal often become the primary scale-up constraints and can limit the practical size of production fermenters. Some microorganisms require specialized containment and biosafety measures to protect personnel, product integrity, and the environment. These processes often generate wastewater with high Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), requiring treatment before discharge, reuse, or other approved disposal methods.
Key regulatory considerations may include compliance with NIH biosafety guidelines for the use and containment of genetically modified microorganisms, including Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) review and oversight where applicable. Wastewater and effluent management are regulated under the Clean Water Act through National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits or local publicly owned treatment works (POTW) discharge requirements, particularly for the high-BOD wastewater streams commonly generated by fermentation processes. While oxygen transfer limitations are primarily an engineering consideration, the large-scale equipment used to address them may be subject to OSHA requirements, pressure-vessel regulations, mechanical integrity programs, and applicable building and fire codes. For food and food ingredient applications, facilities must comply with FDA requirements and often incorporate industry standards such as 3-A Sanitary Standards, NSF standards, and ASME Bioprocessing Equipment (ASME BPE) guidance to support hygienic facility and equipment design.
How Fluor Helps
Fluor brings more than 30 years of experience delivering industrial biotechnology and microbiology-based manufacturing facilities. Our expertise spans project planning, estimating, feasibility and conceptual studies, engineering, construction, commissioning, and qualification. Whether developing a new facility or resolving operational challenges, including contamination issues in existing plants, Fluor provides the technical knowledge and proven solutions to keep production on track.
Process Features
A key requirement of industrial biotechnology facilities is the ability to establish and maintain a sterile environment during fermentation operations. The nutrient-rich media used to cultivate production microorganisms can also provide ideal conditions for contaminating organisms. Without effective contamination control, product quality, yield, and operational reliability can be significantly affected. Fluor applies decades of experience in facility design, sterilization systems, containment strategies, and operational best practices to help clients maintain process integrity and achieve consistent manufacturing performance.
Facility Features
Industrial biotechnology plants typically include a high temperature short time media sterilizer to heat and cool the media efficiently prior to use. An inoculum prep lab with a laminar flow hood is used for the first stage of fermentation and a series of increasing size fermenters are used to provide the production fermenters with sufficient inoculum. Disc stack centrifuges are often used in the first stage of purification to remove the microbes from the product stream.
Fluor Projects
LS9
Location: Okeechobee, Florida, USA
Scope: Engineering
Fluor provided conceptual, basic, and detailed design for LS9’s demonstration plant to manufacture diesel fuel from waste streams from orange juice manufacturing using GMO E. coli. The scope included a 35,000-gallon production fermenter, the seed train, disk stack centrifuge and process support.
Confidential Client
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Scope: Engineering
Fluor provided consulting services to find and fix the new demonstration plant’s fermentation contamination problems. The changes allowed the plant to start up successfully.
Ajinomoto
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Scope: Multiple EPCM projects
Fluor provided conceptual and detailed design, procurement and construction services to Ajinomoto Company, Inc. for its first amino acids manufacturing facility in the United States. Fluor and Ajinomoto formed a team that would successfully deliver the project ahead of schedule and under budget.
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