History

Degussa Fine Organics, based at Seal Sands, Middlesbrough, is part of Degussa’s Exclusive Synthesis & Catalysts Business, a global leader in the custom and contract manufacture of intermediates and active ingredients for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and specialty chemicals industries.

Initially established in 1977 to undertake contract manufacture of pharmaceutical ingredients, Degussa Fine Organics is now a major supplier of fine chemicals into a wide range of global industries.

The company has operated from its current location in Seal Sands, Teesside, since 1984. Today the site has three production buildings (the third building was commissioned in 1996), a well-equipped and versatile pilot plant with 12 reactors ranging in size from 100 to 4,500 L and a modern Quality Control/Development Laboratory, which was opened in 1998.

The Degussa Fine Organics site is situated in an area zoned exclusively for chemical industry development, and is able to handle a wide range of specialized raw materials and technologies. The site has a reputation, established over many years, of handling a wide range of highly flammable, toxic, malodorous and dermatitic materials to a very high level of containment, and has bulk storage and handling of hazardous raw materials.

Quality standards

• ISO 9001: 2000
• ISO 14001
• Regularly audited by the FDA
• 10 drug master files held on site
• All operations conform to cGMP

Equipment

Wide range of vessels (from 100 L to 20 m3) in different materials like stainless steel and hastelloy. All vessels heated and cooled by inert heat transfer medium with standard operating range of –10 to 140°C.

• Specialized handling capability for chlorine, bromine, hydrogen sulphide, dimethyl sulphate, carbon disulphide, carbon monoxide.
• Low temperature facility down to –85°C
• Ozonolysis capability from kilograms to tens of metric tons
• Photohalogenation reactions
• Grignard and organolithium chemistry
• Biological waste water treatment
• Range of distillation units
• Centrifuges (stainless steel and halar lined), pressure filters (stainless steel, hastelloy), buss driers (stainless steel), cone driers (Glass lined)
• Plant fully protected with automated fixed fire detection and protection system
• Large, well-equipped quality control and development laboratories
• Extensive hazard testing facilities and process safety management
• Safety/environmental control:
  • IPPC
  • COMAH Top-Tier registere