Industrial Biotechnology

Industrial Biotechnology is a fast-growing sector at the forefront of delivering sustainable industrial products and processes. It encompasses both established biological processes and innovative technologies to replace fossil-based resources with renewable biomass, promote a circular economy by using waste as feedstock, and create new markets for agricultural products. Applications span industries such as biofuels, chemicals, polymers, and sustainable protein. Otto Simon plays a vital role in this sector as an engineering partner, helping our clients de-risk development, accelerate safe deployment, navigate funding rounds, and turn innovative concepts into operational reality.

How OSL Can Help Clients

OSL positions itself as a strategic engineering partner, providing the technical expertise a client needs to commercialise their technology. Their services are designed to address the key challenges and questions a client will face:

• Engineering Partner / Owner's Engineer: We can act as our client's engineer, providing independent technical oversight and ensuring the project is executed to the highest standards.
• Developing and Integrating Core Technology: Helping clients develop their core technology into a fully integrated, scalable, commercial process.
• From TRL 4/5 to TRL 9: Over these critical scale-up phases, we help clients validate their technology from laboratory to commercial scale.
• Developing and Securing Intellectual Property (IP): Otto Simon support clients in defining their technical basis to successfully secure patents and develop broader IP.
• Technical Due-Diligence: OSL provides detailed technical reviews for investors or project developers to validate technologies, evaluate project OPEX/CAPEX estimates, and to identify performance, cost, and safety risks.
• Process Safety: This is a core part of OSL's offering. We conduct hazard studies and safety assessments to ensure the plant can be built and operated safely, and complies with all applicable regulations.

How OSL Delivers on Its Promises

OSL helps clients to demonstrate their project's viability through a structured approach. We develop engineering deliverables from firm technical foundations to provide the client and potential investors with a clear and verifiable design package addressing the following questions:

• What will the plant look like (Scope) -  Develop a detailed scope of work, including conceptual and feasibility studies, to define the plant's design and operational requirements.
• What will the process deliver (Performance) - Define raw material consumption, throughput, power and utility requirements, on-stream time, labour demands etc, to establish the overall operating costs.
• How much will the project cost to build (Capex) - Produce capex (capital expenditure) estimates, from order-of-magnitude costs, in early phases, to sanction grade estimates.
• How long will the plant take to build (Programme) - Develop a project schedule, outlining key milestones, critical path activities, and timelines for design, procurement, and construction.
• Is the process safe to operate (Process Safety) - Conduct rigorous process and functional safety studies, to identify and mitigate risks.
• Does the plant meet applicable standards (Regulatory Compliance) - Provides expertise in regulatory compliance, ensuring the project meets all applicable legal and planning requirements.