Located on Evotec’s Curie Campus, this biomanufacturing site aims to meet the needs of biotherapeutics.

A large-scale project

At the beginning of 2021, R&D company Just – Evotec Biologics decided to set up a new biomanufacturing plant in Europe. The group’s aim is to speed up access to biotherapeutic products. To achieve this, it has chosen to set up on its existing site in Toulouse, on Evotec’s Curie Campus.
The J.POD® Toulouse, France plant will be the second of its kind in the world, after the one in Redmond, USA.

The project involves a pharmaceutical industrial building with a floor area of around 15,000 m², including clean rooms dedicated to the process, laboratories, a logistics area and offices. The project must meet the requirements of cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).
It aims to achieve LEED Silver environmental certification and is subject to approval by the Architectes des Bâtiments de France.

This new building requires expertise in the design of clean rooms, clean utilities, black utilities and process equipment. To carry out all these tasks, the R&D group has appointed Ingerop (leader of a consortium with its subsidiary ILS and the Brunerie Architectes agency) to provide comprehensive project management services.

Complete project management

Scheduled to be operational in 2024, construction of this building has already begun.
As part of its mission, Ingerop is assisting Just – Evotec Biologics from the design phase through to supervision of the construction work in all disciplines, such as clean utilities, clean rooms, integration of process equipment, qualified HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning), automation, high and low voltage electricity, all grey utilities, the structure and external fittings.

This project is a real opportunity for Ingerop, as it is the first J.POD® manufacturing plant for biological products in Europe. Capable of providing intensified clinical and commercial manufacturing of biologics in scalable quantities, J.POD® plants are considered to be ‘factories of the future’ as they promote access to medicines and also reduce costs and risks in the manufacturing process.

Ingerop has launched the third edition of its international intrapreneurship programme, IN³.

The aim of the programme is to stimulate the agility and creativity of Ingérop’s employees, to encourage the emergence of value-creating projects and to propose new service offerings for its customers. Following a selection process, 15 projects were chosen for a pitch session to select the 7 teams who will benefit from the first phase of support under the programme.

As popular as ever

Building on its success since its launch in 2019, the IN³ programme has launched its third season. This year, 24 projects have been proposed by employees, both French and from one of the Group’s international subsidiaries.
The Innovation Committee, made up of 10 Ingerop employees and chaired by François Lacroix, the group’s Scientific and Technical Director, met to select the 15 projects chosen to pitch at the start of the year.

Seven projects in the spotlight and more support!

At the end of the meeting, 7 projects with teams from a variety of backgrounds, both in France and internationally, were selected for the first phase of support. With 1/3 of their working time paid for by IN³ and a budget of €5,000, the teams, supported by our partner Impulse Partners, will have 6 months to develop and grow their idea.

The seven projects selected are:

• Calcab Structure – Calcab is a tool enabling designers to calculate the regulatory carbon weight of the structures in their projects.
• Climatool Health – Climatool Health is a digital decision-making tool that enables hospital decision-makers to optimise the resilience of their healthcare infrastructure in the face of climate change.
• Cyclability – Cyclability is a digital tool dedicated to public and private entities that evaluates the cycle network and proposes optimised developments in favour of soft mobility.
• Infracost Monitoring – InfraCost Monitoring is a monitoring tool that enables construction companies to control the CO2 footprint of their projects during the construction phase.
• L’oreille d’Or – L’oreille d’Or is an autonomous acoustic detection system for identifying production anomalies in Industry 4.0.
• SoftLogistic – Soft Logistics helps local authorities to optimise their worksite flows using software that reduces the impact of logistical and noise pollution.
• Trackcase – Trackcase is an applied research project designed to analyse the condition of a railway line using a case equipped with sensors. The aim of the project is to optimise railway line maintenance costs.

In September, a second pitch session will be organised in front of a jury enlarged to include relevant external profiles. The most convincing and successful projects will then be selected and will benefit from a second phase of support, leading to a truly innovative range of services.

Boosted by the growth of the German market, Ingerop Deutschland, through its subsidiary Codema, has acquired the assets of RRI (Rhein Ruhr International Consulting Engineers), a company based in Essen, whose fifteen employees joined the Group a few days ago. By April, the teams will be physically reunited in Codema’s Essen branch.

Founded in 1942, RRI (Rhein Ruhr International Consulting Engineers) offers design services for the construction of buildings on industrial sites. The 15 engineers and architects have numerous references on projects in Germany and abroad for ThyssenKrupp, Arcelor Mittal, BASF and Saint-Gobain.

“This asset purchase will enable us to expand the Ingerop Deutschland teams, which were having difficulty finding talented people because of the shortage of engineering jobs in Germany,” explains Thomas Sontag, Managing Director of Ingerop Deutschland and Codema.

“Nearly 350 employees are now working to ensure the success of our customers’ projects in Germany, and will enable our German subsidiary to offer a wider range of design services,” concludes Yves Metz, Chairman of the Ingerop Group.

Ingerop has developed Pos’Hy, the first sizing tool for hydrogen production and distribution infrastructures linked to mobility, industry and energy storage.

The only one of its kind on the market, this new tool makes it possible to simulate and compare different scenarios, including the selection of equipment and the environmental and economic analysis of projects, reliably and quickly, according to customers’ needs.

Ingerop, a leading player in the hydrogen sector

Faced with the challenge of climate change, Ingerop has made ecology the primary strategic focus of its development. In this context, the engineering group sees hydrogen, whether renewable or low-carbon, as a means of decarbonising many sectors of the economy, such as industry and mobility, and improving the efficiency of renewable energies.

For nearly 10 years, Ingerop has been expanding its expertise in this field. Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, it is positioned across the entire hydrogen value chain, with consultancy, project management and turnkey operations.

Pos’Hy, a unique design tool

At the same time, Ingerop has developed a unique tool for designing the entire hydrogen chain, from production to distribution, including compression and storage.

Suitable for projects involving mobility, industry or energy storage, for both public and private clients, it provides a real methodology for approaching the design of installations.

It identifies all the data needed to design an infrastructure in line with the customer’s predefined requirements, selects the necessary equipment (electrolysers, storage tanks, compressors, distribution stations), analyses the environmental aspect (floor space required, environmental risks, regulations), energy consumption and the economic aspect of the project.

Finally, it allows you to quickly simulate several scenarios for the same project, depending on the site, location and solution required, and to determine the investment and operating costs. It facilitates choices and trade-offs and helps to find the right balance between hydrogen production, storage and distribution, depending on the uses of each project.

Pos’Hy, a comprehensive tool

Pos’Hy is an ergonomic tool that allows you to design a project in several stages:

1. Parameter setting of uses and consumers: selection of uses, the type of consumers and their periods of use, refuelling ranges and speeds in order to obtain an automatic assessment of consumption and hydrogen production requirements;
2. Hydrogen production sizing: automatic sizing of hydrogen production equipment according to consumption and autonomy requirements, selection of electrolysers according to production technologies and desired availability rates;
3. Selection of compression stages: selection according to pressure of use and desired storage volumes;
4. Dispensing station settings: sizing the number of dispensers according to the type and number of vehicles and the desired filling time;
5. Simulations of the operation of the facilities: hydrogen production vs. distribution, storage levels vs. distribution capacity, filling times for storage and vehicles, energy balance, land location, CAPEX / OPEX / TCO cost estimates.