![Customer update: We’re mid-way through construction of our new in-house fermentation suite [Part 2]](https://genesisbiosciences.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/20201203_162642-EDIT-scaled.jpg "Customer update: We’re mid-way through construction of our new in-house fermentation suite [Part 2]")
Our planned business expansion continues with our additional, purpose built, in-house fermentation suite.
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic which has presented challenges for us and many other businesses, in August 2020 we were very excited to start work on building 3 which is an additional, purpose built, in-house fermentation suite large enough to house 6 brand new, custom built 30,000 liter fermenters together with all of the necessary downstream processing.
The ever-increasing demand for high-quality Bacillus and eco-benign® biological products made it clear to us that we needed to greatly increase our capacity. This important project will allow us to triple our fermentation capacity and we will have the capability to carry out several high volume fermentation runs simultaneously with individual, separate downstream processing.
From our initial facility improvements in 2018
The fermentation suite is being constructed to the highest hygiene standards in our industry. Every surface in the suite is a food-grade, non-porous, sanitary surface and the walls are covered with a seamless epoxy membrane.
The brand new floor is an impervious, chemical-resistant epoxy floor designed for durability, strength and impact resistance. The base coat of the flooring will be installed prior to the equipment but the final sanitary coat will encase the bases of the equipment and be fully sealed in order to eliminate the potential for contamination.
From our initial facility improvements in 2018
The flooring material will be installed to a height of 6 inches up the wall to eliminate the potential for contamination building up between the wall and floor. The safety of our team members is paramount so the floor has a textured coating which helps in making it slip-resistant.
Constructing our facility to this high standard will allow us to reach our goal of FSSC 22000 certification in February 2021, which includes CGMP, HACCP and FSMA compliance.
The first two 30,000 liter fermenters and support vessels will arrive and be installed in January 2021 along with 2 new centrifuges, a 10,000 gallon capacity holding tank and 2 new horizontal boilers which will give a total of 438 Hp – effectively doubling our existing steam capacity and will improve fuel efficiency in order to help reduce our carbon footprint. The new fermenters and support equipment will be operational by the start of quarter 2, 2021.
Two brand new Ingersoll Rand air compressors will optimize oxygen uptake by our bacteria during the fermentation process and will in fact triple our air capacity. These new compressors also contain HEPA filters to provide highly filtered air in order to reduce the potential for contamination.
In addition, building 3 will house a separate pilot scale suite, consisting of a fermenter, centrifuge and spray dryer. This will allow us to perform optimization and scale-up work for proof of principle before embarking on large scale production for our new, novel strains and to provide a cost-effective method of optimizing strains for our customers prior to full scale production.
Read about part 1 of our new facility improvements, conducted in 2020:
To find out more about Genesis Biosciences, visit our About page.