Valent BioSciences Corp.

Project Description

Dean Snyder Construction completed a three-phase expansion of a biorational manufacturing facility in Osage, Iowa. The project supported growing demand for biorational products and provided capacity for future innovations.

As part of the upgrades, DSC installed production-scale fermentation and recovery equipment featuring advanced digital capabilities. A 60-foot vessel was placed through the roof of the existing facility, with crews currently installing structural steel beams for framing and constructing walkways around the tank for safe and efficient operations.
The expansion included a 16,400-square-foot structural steel building housing pilot, maintenance, office, and laboratory spaces. This state-of-the-art facility will expedite product development while offering additional office space, conference rooms, and laboratory instrumentation to enhance fermentation performance. For the fermentation addition, a 70-foot-tall, 3,000-square-foot structure was constructed on a mat slab foundation with integrated trench drains. Crews laid a robust foundation using 15-foot geopiers to ensure stability. Once complete, the space will accommodate two new fermentation vessels, with room to add two more in the future.

DSC crews also completed an addition to the biorational manufacturing facility to help meet increasing demand for its biorational products and allow new products requiring more capacity. The project included a new 14,500 SF structural steel pilot/maintenance/office/laboratory facility with state-of-the-art development equipment. It is used to accelerate the introduction of new products and provide additional office space, conference rooms, and instrumentation to analyze and improve existing fermentation performance in their lab area.

Previously, DSC was awarded the cast-in-place contract with Valent BioSciences in March 2012. DSC crews poured nearly 10,000 yards of concrete and placed 750 tons of rebar. This was the start of the 130,000 SF fermentation campus project spread out over 73 acres. In spring 2016, DSC crews returned to Valent to install a new 130,800 liter (34,553 gallon) Harvest Tank into their facility to help expand their operations. Crews opened the 2nd floor area, remove existing steel and a roof supported monorail bridge crane, pour a new equipment pad on the 1st floor, and set the 47’ tall tank into a 75’ tall building using a 275-ton crane. Crews then reframed the 2nd floor and reinstall the roof, the monorail crane, and sprinkler system.