Backgrounder
Insulin Bulk Plant (IBP), Kalundborg
History
On 30 June 2000, Novo Nordisk broke ground for what would become the world’s largest insulin production facility. Exactly two years later, Mads Øvlisen, chairman of the Board of Novo Nordisk, pushed the button to start pumping the fermentation liquid to the first plant. Another five plants followed over the next nine months, and the final handing over of the new factory complex was completed at the beginning of April 2003.
On 26 June 2003, the first batch of insulin left the facility – less than three years after the groundbreaking ceremony. After filling and packaging at Novo Nordisk’s finishing facilities, the first insulin products from IBP will be on the market in 2004.
Facts about the Insulin Bulk Plant
• Price: about 2.5 billion Danish kroner
• Size: 32,000 square metres of floor space, approximately 230 metres in length
• Employment: 350 people
• More than 135,000 cubic metres of earth removed from the site
• More than 110,000 cubic metres of sand brought to the site
• More than 3,200 elements erected
• More than 1,200 tons of reinforced steel used
• More than 75,000 cubic metres of liquid concrete used
• Approximately 500 running metres of documentation for construction, production equipment and computer systems provided before the facility was operational
• Cable length: approximately 550 km
• About 100 ventilation and extraction installations
• About 1,500 smoke and fire detectors
• Computer systems process about 20,000 signals to and from the production facility.
The architectural idea
More than 200 metres long, the main building symbolises the flow of the product through the plant, with a fermentation building towards the north and nine side buildings that service the product underway in the process. Variable lengths of the side buildings as well as free areas in the production hall provide flexibility.
The philosophy is to couple the concept of closeness with large scale. Employees are concentrated around the core of the enormous combined building complex, with laboratories, offices and workshops in close proximity. Thus employees meet many of their colleagues in the course of a working day, which gives a sense of community as well as shared goals and accessible communication. The many glass walls provide good visual contact and overall survey.
Production is controlled from the heart of the plant – the main control centres – two storeys high. Radiating from the control centres are the production halls, which are light and provide a good overview of the production plant. The open production halls provide flexibility for future adjustment of plant capacity.
The largest pharmaceutical water purification plant in the world
Insulin production requires large amounts of water: raw water for fermentation and recovery, and purified water for the subsequent processing steps and CiP (Cleaning in Place – via permanently connected units). The world’s largest pharmaceutical water purification plant was dimensioned for IBP.
Refrigeration system with built-in energy saver
IBP’s energy consumption inspired innovative thinking. Process cooling systems are traditionally the biggest energy consumers. Major energy savings were made by charting the refrigeration needs of every single part of the production process and dividing the refrigeration system into several circuits at different temperatures to avoid overcooling.
Contractor
Novo Nordisk Engineering A/S (NNE) built the facility for Novo Nordisk A/S, the largest single project NNE has undertaken to date. The project was carried out with the help of many external subcontractors: 1.6 million workers’ hours were used in construction. When the activity level was at its peak there were 800 workers on the site and about 500 NNE employees.
One of the prerequisites for being able to build the plant so quickly is fast-track engineering. Subcontractors supplied processing units and standard modules for erection on the building site, which might more correctly be called an assembly site.
High level of safety on site
In 2002 the project was nominated as Denmark’s safest building site in its category – 27 accidents per million working hours. The most serious accident during the entire course of the project was a broken thumb.
