Hargrove Retrofits Kentucky Facility

Mobile-based Hargrove Controls & Automation, an industrial automation system integrator and a subsidiary of global engineering, procurement and construction firm Hargrove Engineers & Constructors, retrofitted an existing 88,000-ft2 brownfield facility in Winchester, Kentucky, for the biotechnology company Danimer Scientific. Danimer develops renewable and sustainable polymers that reduce dependency on petrochemicals. It develops biodegradable plastics that utilize environmentally friendly polyesters. It needed to upscale its demonstration plant process into an automated manufacturing facility to meet market demand for products that are compostable alternatives to single-use plastics. Hargrove said that, due to its biotechnology being so new, Danimer needed a completely unique process design to take its product out of the pilot phase. It added that Danimer needed an integrator to guide it through the process of automating and designing a functional facility so it could begin raising capital. The project had intense budget and scheduling constraints to meet stakeholder expectations, and Hargrove utilized its experience in the life sciences industry and its ability to design pioneering processes to guide Danimer in transforming its Kentucky facility into a fully realized manufacturing plant.