BioSAFE Engineering Mobilizes to Deliver a Deployable Chemical Effluent Disposal System

In mid-summer 2018, a catastrophic flood at a major government BSL-3 and -4 research facility restricted capacity to treat laboratory wastewater, forcing a suspension of critical research projects.

An emergency review of their onsite infrastructure, processes, personnel and logistics revealed a critical need for containerized capability to treat and neutralize research waste on location. The laboratory’s rapid response team called on BioSAFE Engineering to establish a fast-track project that immediately challenged BioSAFE while confirming the company’s proven reputation for performance.

The project presented a challenge to the customer as well as to all members of our BioSAFE Engineering team. BioSAFE’s dedicated employees worked sixty-hour weeks giving up nights, weekends and holidays to respond to this emergency.

How BioSAFE Helped Build the Solution

Our customer needed a fully self-contained and transportable system capable of working anywhere.

We were tasked with supporting the underlying functions of their laboratory research in a BSL-3/4 facility in a short period of time.

• The system requirement dictated that it had to be fully self-contained and transportable.
• Upon delivery and successful testing, this new system needed to get the BSL-3/4 facility back to operational status immediately.
• The timeline from design to installation was compressed, requiring an overwhelming commitment from our employees and suppliers. Though BioSAFE had never attempted a production schedule this aggressive, we knew the importance of this project to the public health and safety and knew we were up to the challenge.

BioSAFE Engineering was uniquely positioned to get the job done

• BioSAFE has the capability to respond to a critical matter with expertise and quick response.
• BioSAFE hosted a roundtable meeting of all critical members of the client’s rapid response team and worked collaboratively to ensure that all stakeholders’ concerns were heard and addressed, insuring that the system delivered would meet be the customer’s expectations.
• BioSAFE’s past project experience allowed us to leverage one of our existing designs, which had standards similar to this project’s specifications; we originally designed a similar system to provide standby assistance with Ebola outbreaks in Africa in 2014, but that project was never deployed in the field.
• BioSAFE’s engineering, production and support teams came together to fulfill the commitment to complete the project per the required time, cost and quality specifications.
• As a result, BioSAFE completed and delivered the project only 30 days after approval of our submittal drawings.
• This BSL3/4 project further established BioSAFE’s reputation for professional responses to an array of decontamination solutions in support of national defense, public health and safety, and a broad range of scientific research and industrial process applications.

The concept of a transportable containerized effluent decontamination system, once theoretical, is now a reality. This project illustrated the dedication of BioSAFE’s employees, including and especially our production staff, who dedicated countless weeks of overtime, to get this project completed on time, on budget and to our exacting standards.