Fluor was contracted by AECI to help scale-up an in-house laboratory process for lysine production. After development of conceptual design, we were awarded a design and construction management contract for a commercial-scale bioprocess manufacturing lysine plant.

A fully integrated team from AECI and Fluor executed the project. AECI performed civil, electrical and control engineering, procurement, inspection and expediting. Fluor provided structural, mechanical and piping engineering. Our systems tracked the procurement ordering and delivery. Under the direction of AECI's project manager, we managed the construction and assisted with the start-up of the facility.

The process involved four fermentor trains with a capacity near 250 cubic meters. We designed the commercial-scale process and mechanical components of the fermenters, which were manufactured in South Africa. The rated capacity was 15,000 tons of lysine hydrochloride.