Liberation Labs, a large-scale precision fermentation manufacturer, has executed a purchase agreement for the site of its first commercial-scale biomanufacturing facility. The new facility, which will have a fermentation capacity of 600,000 liters with a fully dedicated downstream process (DSP), will be located in the Midwest Industrial Park in Richmond, Ind. Commercial production is expected by the end of 2024.
Liberation Labs is focused on enabling the commercial availability of bioproducts that will meet the growing demand from existing major CPG and ingredient brands as well as from the emerging crop of precision fermentation-focused startups. The new facility will be the first purpose-built commercial-scale precision fermentation plant in the United States. The company has completed Front End Loading level 3 engineering (FEL-3) and has begun placing orders for long-lead equipment and building out the operations team. Groundbreaking is expected later this spring.
The new facility will be located on a 36-acre parcel within Phase I of Richmond, Indiana’s 700-acre Midwest Industrial Park, which is owned and maintained by the City of Richmond in partnership with the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County. Liberation Labs will be the 10th tenant to locate in this well-established industrial park.
This site offers tremendous logistical opportunities for the company, including:
• Shovel ready site with necessary utility capacity
• Proximity to Interstate 70, the Norfolk Southern mainline and three regional airports for shipping and logistics
• Proximity to cost-advantaged carbon feedstocks
• Significant percentage of baseload power to facility is clean, solar energy
• Proximity to three large metropolitan areas, providing adequate qualified labor
Liberation Labs will benefit from several key incentives offered by Wayne County and the State of Indiana, including tax credits, grants, utility offsets, workforce-related incentives and discounts on the land purchase. The company expects to invest $115 million in the facility and plans to create an estimated 45 well-paying manufacturing jobs.
Not only will Liberation Labs increase the overall supply of bio-based consumer products, it also will make them at lower cost because they will be manufactured and distributed in the United States. Today, most biomanufacturing capacity is in Europe but production and shipping fees make sourcing from there cost prohibitive.
