The keys to Burns & McDonnell’s continued success ultimately relies on our client’s repeat accomplishments. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is 100 percent employee-owned and understands the importance of client commitment.
We identify the critical success factors necessary to align project team goals right from the start. We are an internationally recognized engineering, architecture, construction, environmental, and consulting solutions firm based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Burns & McDonnell’s 2,900 employee-owners include professional engineers, architects, construction managers, geologists, planners, estimators, economists, and environmental scientists representing virtually all design disciplines. The company plans, designs, permits, constructs, and manages facilities all over the world. The company was recently awarded the 2009 Premier Award for Client Satisfaction by the Professional Services Management Journal.
Front-end engineering and EPC services in biorefining, biochemicals, and agricultural product processing. Specific technical expertise in grain receiving/storage, milling, cooking, fermentation, heat transfer, evaporation, filtration, fluid mechanics, distillation, dehydration, centrifugation, drying, utilities, thermal oxidation, liquid extraction, gasification, and integration of new processes into existing facilities. In addition, we offer our clients early stage services such as site selection, DOE grant application and compliance, financial modeling, and support in acquiring third-party finance.
We believe this industry will continue to grow as “stand-alone” technologies are developed that can compete in the marketplace without government subsidies. We see particular growth in ethanol (cellulosic) and related fuel replacements such as butanol. In addition to biofuels, the industry is branching into biochemicals, which provide a higher-value end products relative to fuels.
Provided that the government continues to encourage this industry on the back of energy independence, we see biofuels/chemicals as an important component of our economic engine.
With an economic push to increase renewable energy and heighten facility sustainability, Burns & McDonnell welcomes this environmentally friendly movement and the opportunity to help the U.S. develop a plan to decrease its growing dependence on foreign oil.
In addition to the challenges of developing process technologies in the cellulosic sector; there are a number of logistical issues related to feedstock supply, compilation, and process scale. On the output side of the equation, transportation to end-user markets is a significant challenge. Economic challenges related to project financing and the overall global economic condition will inhibit growth in the short term.