Fluor completed the front end engineering design (FEED) for the expansion in 2015 and detailed design in early summer 2016. Fluor went on to construct the new facility with a total of 180 craft workers. The approximately 80,000 ft2, three-story facility was built on a site directly across from an existing Solvay facility. The ground level houses process manufacturing, raw material storage, finished goods storage, labs, process support/storage and shipping/receiving. The first floor houses offices, labs and mixing functions. Process and utility support equipment such as chillers, HVAC units and process heating systems are located on the uppermost floor.
The main building pipe rack was modularized and installed with the structural steel frame, which pulled the design, fabrication, and installation of the pipe rack forward roughly four months. Fluor also utilized equipment modules or skids where possible to remove craft hours from the field, improving safety and efficiency. A piping contractor in Cork, Ireland provided the pipe rack modules, and vendors provided the equipment modules.