Without the proper consideration, a building project such as Lundbeck’s coming activity centre containing sports facilities and swimming pool could cause a surge in energy consumption. But this is not likely to happen at Valby. From the first drawings, keeping the energy consumption under control has been part of the work, and this applies in every aspect from selection of materials to dimensioning of the hot water supply and ventilation systems, according to Christian Saxer from Engineering.

“For instance, wrong building materials could cause high cooling requirements. And cooling is one of the most energy-consuming processes. Also, we must avoid solutions requiring heating and cooling at the same time. That would be pure ’energy murder’.”

Energy scrutinising of major building projects has been applied before with good results, e.g. when the packing department was refurbished some years ago. Today, all projects – large and small – are assessed on an energy conscious basis and usually savings can be achieved by choosing one solution over the other.

Read more about our HS&E activities in Valby in our HS&E report for Valby

Vacuum pumps
Replacement of a number of vacuum pumps saves energy and fuel, reduces pollution and improves the working environment related to maintenance of the pumps.

The vacuum pumps handle the replacement of air in the 12–14 chemical reactors located in LumsĂ„s’ five plants. Previously, each reactor had its own pump that ran at a constant speed, often for a longer time than required. The pumps therefore used unnecessary electricity and fuel. “With the new solution, one pump in each plant supplies all reactors with vacuum. The new pumps are controlled electronically to run slowly or fast according to the need in all reactors,” says head of department Kenneth Dalum.

The annual consumption of fuel is expected to decline from 12–15,000 litres to a few hundred litres. At the same time, the time consumption and costs related to maintenance will be significantly reduced. The new vacuum pumps also reduce emission of solvents in the surroundings, because a condenser condenses the vapours of solvents in the air before the air from the reactors is sent to the central filter and emitted in the surroundings via the chimney. The new system is more efficient as regards eliminating pollution from the emitted air than the old system.

The investment in the five pumps and pipelines will have paid off after approximately three years, when including the savings in electricity and maintenance costs.

Lundbeck constantly seeks to replace hazardous solvents by less problematic compounds. However, due to regulatory requirements, it can be difficult to change the production process for a pharmaceutical product. However, LumsĂ„s was given the chance to make changes in connection with an overall GMP upgrade. In the so-called allyl carbinol process, we managed to replace the solvent heptane, which is on the Danish EPA’s list of unwanted compounds, with water and alcohol. The replacement
also allows for a shorter process because the use of water and alcohol saves six washing procedures. Furthermore, the yield increased from 70 to 95 per cent, and the process also reduced the consumption of raw materials.

We have also used ether in the process, but this has now been replaced by tetrahydrofuran. This compound is not as volatile as ether, we only use half the volume and obtain a higher yield owing to a reduction in waste. Our FluanxolÂź process has also been reevaluated. As this process previously provided very fluctuating yields, we have now identified a more stable method, which is also beneficial to the working environment. It only requires one open carbon filtration as compared with four and cleaning is no longer required.

Read more about our HS&E activities in LumsÄs  in our HS&E report for LumsÄs

The promise of PATCY
As lower resource consumption and less waste benefit the environment and rewards Lundbeck with cost savings, employees from England, Italy and Denmark joined forces to improve yield in our production process.

Employees from Lundbeck sites in England, Italy and Denmark have joined forces to improve yield in our production process.

The project is called PATCY. Under Seal Sands leadership the project seeks to increase the yield when converting Cyanophthalide (CYP) to Dicarbinol sulphate (CDIS). The latter is a key ingredient in the production of Escitalopram, the active ingredient in CipralexÂź. Three conversion batches are run every week, producing a total of 1.5 tonnes of CDIS.

The present CYP-to-CDIS conversion rate is 65–70 per cent. The project aim is to increase the conversion rate by as much as ten per cent. If we succeed, both the resource consumption and the amount of chemical waste in form of solvents, acids and solids per produced unit, will be equally reduced. Lower resource consumption and less waste benefit the environment, and also rewards Lundbeck with cost savings. “A core team has been working on this project since September 2005” says Paul Fenwick, quality operations manager at Seal Sands.

The team has collected and analysed data from 100 conversion batches, isolated some 600 parameters in the conversion process and then focused on the parameters that seemed the most important. “For instance, it is very important when and how quickly the two main reagents are added to the reaction, and also how much water is in ingredients like the CYP and the solvent used for the reaction. Even the shape of the CYP crystals seems to have a large effect on the process,” says Paul Fenwick.

A decision to implement the new techniques will be made during 2006.

Read more about our HS&E activities in Seal Sands in our HS&E report for Seal Sands

75 new automatically operated valves in the drains of fume cupboards reduce the annual emission of organic solvents in the air.

In Lundbeck’s Medicinal Chemistry Research, 75 new automatically operated valves installed in the fume cupboards have reduced the annual emission of organic solvents in the air by 40% relative to 2004.

In departments performing organic synthesis, each fume cupboard is provided with a drain into which the researchers can pour residual solvents. These drains are connected in a piping system leading to a joint tank, where the chemical waste is collected.

When fluid waste is poured down a drain, air is displaced in the piping system and solvent-saturated air is pressed out through the drain in another fume cupboard. Previously, this air was sucked out through the fume cupboards, which increased the volume of organic solvents emitted in the surroundings.

The new valves are open for 20 seconds when an operator pushes a button. The rest of the time they are closed. In practice, this means that the entire piping system is closed for most of the day and the emission of vapours of solvents is minimised. “In future, the new valves will be the standard solution at the planning of new laboratory buildings in Lundbeck,” says head of section Morten Bang Nþrgaard.

Read more about our HS&E activities in Valby in our HS&E report for Valby

’Probably the best training you can give’. These are words used by HSE representative Kenneth Humphries to describe the IOSH – Institution of Occupational Safety and Health – course, he and his fellow HSE representatives attended in 2006.

”It was a week long course, and it was on site, but we had to do homework as well to
prove that we had listened to the trainer. The course wasn’t all legislation or boring
dates. It was relevant to the role of the HSE rep. We all agree that it has made us more
efficient,” says Kenneth Humphries.

 ”The course gave us an insight and made us more aware of what we need to look out for. We now look at everyday things in production with another depth than before. It strengthened us in some areas like risk assessments and hazardous operations, and we tend to think not twice but three times more now. Most chemicals have a hidden hazard in them which you’ve got to control. That’s what we’re here for: to work the hazardout of the process or control the hazard.

This is what we’re equipped to do.” An IOSH course is a recognisable qualification.
IOSH is Europe's leading body for health and safety professionals.

Read more about our HS&E activities in Seal Sands in our HS&E report for Seal Sands

The speedy rescue of a man who had fainted in a drying vessel demonstrated the value of maintaining a continuously trained first aid team of employees.

The speedy rescue of a man who had fainted in a drying vessel demonstrated the value of maintaining a continuously trained first aid team of employees.

Two members of the team quickly extricated the man from the tank, and provided him with oxygen therapy. The incident, which occurred in September, was due to the nitrogen atmosphere in the vessel. The nitrogen itself is harmless, however it excludes oxygen and serves to eliminate the risk of fire or an explosion.

Italian law requires that a first aid team of employees working at a pharmaceutical factory is trained or retrained in first aid every three years. Lundbeck trains or retrains its team every year.

The training is coordinated by the factory doctor and conducted by external doctors and medical experts. The team members learn first aid, but also how to cope with a colleague who has been poisoned, has broken a leg or received similar injuries.

The team consists of ten people from different departments of the factory. They meet to practice their first aid skills every three months. “At least five members of the team are at work to provide help for colleagues and contractors at any given time, night or day,” says HSE manager Andrea Volpato.

Lundbeck also maintains an emergency team of 30 employees from different departments. The members of this team are trained or retrained three to four times a year by the local fire brigade. At least 20 members of this team are at work at any given time.

Read more about our HS&E activities in Padua in our HS&E report for Padua.

In 2006 a new yellow card programme was implemented with the aim of improving employee involvement. The cards are used to collect improvement suggestions or concerns from staff members.
“In 2005 the corporate HS&E department asked us to try to increase the number of near-miss reportings in order to prevent accidents. But it is not always easy to ask an employee to report a near miss. A near miss could be considered as being a fault committed by one or more persons, and sometimes the fault of a manager, and this is not easy to report.
During a meeting with the HS&E managers of the other Lundbeck production sites we learned about the ‘yellow cards’ used in LumsĂ„s, Denmark. So I thought ‘why not try the same?’,” says Andrea Volpato, Health Safety & Environmental Manager. “So we introduced this element, and at first people were a little suspicious. But now that they have seen that many of their suggestions have been implemented, the attitude is more positive.”

“In the middle of the year we produced a poster with the slogan ‘take care of each other’ and ‘thank you for your collaboration’. We also listed the improvements based on suggestions from employees that we already had put in place: a new emergency exit, a mirror for traffic in order to avoid accidents, earthing of one area in order to avoid electrostatic discharge, and notification of the guard of the presence of people during weekends or at night.”

Two entrances were separated to avoid accidents involving suppliers’ trucks and employees. All these initiatives were based on suggestions from employees. “In the past we had a system to notify us of incidents and near misses, but all reportings had to go through a supervisor. The yellow card can be submitted anonymously and put in a mailbox. It’s a more direct way of communicating to us, because you don’t have any intermediates first. Some of our staff members are still a little suspicious, but others see that it works. And we believe that if the employees see that each yellow card produces a response from us, it will be a very useful system.”

Read more about our HS&E activities in Padua in our HS&E report for Padua