As part of a collaboration with WHO, the production of polio vaccines has been increased tenfold at AJ Vaccines’ Amager facility in Denmark in an attempt to combat polio in countries where the illness is still not fully encapsulated. The rapid increase in AJ Vaccines’ production has of course required additional space and a sizeable reconstruction project.

“The purpose of biocontainment is to prevent the spread of anything which might be harmful to people on the outside. It is a highly specialised and also a high-profile project, because biocontainment is hardly ever applied on large-scale production sites. The construction of the Lindholm facility is probably the only other large-scale example in Denmark. This of course makes it even more exciting and challenging to be part of,” says Steffen Højmann who has taken on the roles of construction manager and technical coordinator with responsibility for electrical and mechanical components, instrumentation, ventilation, automation, architecture and the daily operations and maintenance on the construction site.

The task of keeping a potential spread of infection at bay has required that all buildings be constructed air-tight. LBP Engineering have handled the correction of leakages as well as the management of all waste, including ventilation, autoclaving of clothes, and cleaning and heat treatment of production water before sewerage. Polio is neutralised at high temperature or through isolation.

“It requires a particular health and safety protocol to manage biohazards and risk of infection. The important thing is that we constantly keep all waste on the inside for treatment before channeling it out. These buildings are five times more air-tight now compared to before we were onboarded. That is very satisfying,” says Steffen Højmann.

Apart from the site expansion, renovation and airtightening of buildings, LBP Engineering have contributed to the optimisation of facility kill-units as well as the installation of a new autoclave and new media and mixer tanks. There was no shortage of piping, as Steffen Højmann explains:

“We came across a lot of unexpected piping during this project, particularly in the ground. On top of this, there was quite a lot of old building foundation which needed to be blasted out. This is in the middle of Copenhagen, and therefore we weren’t allowed to go through with the required explosions until just three months prior to the initiation of the building. It caused some concern, but everything was ultimately ready in due time,” says Steffen Højmann.