“Developing and optimizing custom processes and managing projects competently and successfully, these are our strengths! They also are the reason why many prominent companies worldwide employ Saltigo as a full-service supplier for exclusive synthesis,” says Wolfgang Schmitz. The Managing Director of Saltigo GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany, looks back with satisfaction on the 2013 business year and is also optimistic about 2014. “Our project pipeline is nicely filled,” Schmitz remarks. “Customers in our core agrochemicals segment are predicting continued market growth,” he says. The market potential of herbicides and growth regulators, and also of insecticides and fungicides, contributes greatly to this assessment. To participate in this dynamic market development, Saltigo wants to showcase its capabilities at this year's Chemspec Europe, taking place in Budapest from June 18 to 19. The LANXESS subsidiary's trade fair exhibition will focus on its all-around expertise and years of experience as a reliable custom manufacturing service provider.

Experienced project management – added value for customers

Shepherding projects to successful completion requires foresight and extensive experience. “Our systematic, holistic project management is a key success factor. We have developed it over many years, and continue to improve on it all the time,” states Jörg Schneider, head of Marketing at Saltigo. It ensures smooth project workflows that strike a balance between technical and business interests. Project managers and teams are responsible for the entire life cycle of their project, from acquisition and evaluation, through process development, scale-up and piloting, all the way to production. A central steering committee coordinates all projects and the allocation of technical and personnel resources.

At the same time, continuously improving processes throughout the project life cycle is a critical factor for lasting project success. All this requires a modern and comprehensive technology portfolio as well as optimal exploitation of existing know-how and other resources. “We can manage and rapidly complete projects of any magnitude up to several thousand tons per year, ensuring resource and cost optimization along the way,” Schneider points out. Concentrating activities at an integrated site secures significant competitive advantages. Saltigo is a highly sought-after problem solver whenever the goal is to shorten a new product's time-to-market.

Dr. Boris E. Bosch, head of Saltigo's Manufacturing Strategy department, will be giving a presentation entitled “Holistic project management – How to add value by continuous improvement along the process chain” at Chemspec on June 18, 2014, as part of the Royal Society of Chemistry's “Waste Not, Want Not - Profit from Sustainable Chemistry” symposium. Using examples, he will describe how Saltigo succeeded in gaining significant cost advantages by continuously improving production processes on a scale of up to several hundred tons.

Economy and ecology go hand in hand

Reliability and on-time supply of substances are key competencies in exclusive synthesis. It is how maximum supply reliability is achieved.

No less important are the competent selection of the synthesis method and sound process development and optimization. They can help to optimize product yield, quality and even the reaction times. What is more, they can minimize waste volumes and energy demand, enabling economic and ecological goals to be met simultaneously. This in turn equitably fulfills demands for cost-efficiency and environmental and resource responsibility.

Saltigo has extensive know-how in the sustainable and eco-friendly design of production processes for agrochemical and pharmaceutical intermediates and active ingredients, as well as specialty chemicals. Such expertise is gaining importance, because along with the growing use of increasingly complex molecules, the paths of synthesis are generally becoming longer and more complex. Lower overall yields combined with larger specific quantities of waste, wastewater and waste air frequently are the result.

The Chempark sites in Leverkusen and Dormagen offer Saltigo ideal conditions for proper waste disposal and environmental management, and they have modern solutions for removing waste and treating water and waste air. “On the way from laboratory specification to production process, we are supported by our experience, our diverse equipment, and naturally also the unique supply and disposal infrastructure that we have access to here at our sites,” Schneider says.

For example, Saltigo chemically analyzes its wastewater and documents the volumes before they are released and fed to the treatment plant. A detailed wastewater discharge log fulfills all reporting requirements to the communities and supervisory authorities.

Saltigo GmbH is a leading supplier in the field of custom synthesis. The company of specialty chemicals group LANXESS belongs to the Advanced Intermediates segment, which achieved total sales in 2013 of EUR 1,647 million. Saltigo, headquartered in Leverkusen and with production facilities in Leverkusen and Dormagen, employs around 1,200 staff worldwide.