OSAGE, Iowa – While Valent BioSciences Corp.’s new 130,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Iowa will become operational in the spring of 2014, today a 500-ton crane, the second largest in North America, has hoisted the large scale industrial fermenters into the building.
The six-story tall fermenters have an annual production capacity in excess of 15 million gallons and will soon drive the first ever facility designed and built specifically for the manufacture of biorational products.
Valent BioSciences develops and commercializes biorational products used in agriculture, public health, and forestry.
The plant will have the capability to manufacture a broad range of biorational products including microbial insecticides, fungicides, and nematicides, as well as plant growth regulators.
“As knowledge about how our products work and how they create value has increased, we’ve seen tremendous growth on a global scale,” said Tom Green, vice president of Global Supply Chain and Manufacturing, Valent BioSciences. Sumitomo Chemical Co. (IW 1000/168) is the parent company of Valent BioSciences.
Once operational, the plant will not only be manufacturing products for use in agriculture but will also be a major consumer of corn, soybeans, and other commodities.
The Osage project remains on budget and ahead of schedule, having completed 330 consecutive safe work days to date since last year’s groundbreaking.
Plant utilities are scheduled to come online this fall, as the company’s new quality assurance laboratory will become the first functioning portion of the facility . Hiring has begun to fill the 90 skilled positions being created with the creation of the plant, and the company anticipates the full staff will be in place by the first of the year.
