Keywords
Citation
(1998), "Pentagon Chemicals' new plant comes on stream", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1998.12927fab.008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Pentagon Chemicals' new plant comes on stream
Pentagon Chemicals' new plant comes on stream
Keywords Chemicals, Pentagon
Leading speciality organic chemicals and contract manufacturer, Pentagon Chemicals of Workington, Cumbria, brought on stream a new £2 million fine chemicals manufacturing facility at the beginning of September at its 13-acre site located in the North West of England.
The new plant, which has a capacity of several hundred tonnes per year, marks completion of another major expansion programme at the company's Workington site. The new plant is ideally equipped to undertake small- to medium-scale Grignard reactions and will allow Pentagon to offer more sophisticated custom synthesis capabilities to enable a wider range of intermediates and products to be manufactured as well as extending the company's scale-up facilities.
Two new glass-lined reactor vessels (one 4m3 and the other 4.5m3) and a high performance glass-lined fractionating column are major features of the new contract manufacturing facility which also provides full vacuum, heating and chilling capabilities. The new plant also provides bulk and drum handling facilities for tetrahydrofuran, ethers, alkyl and aryl halides as well as magnesium which are all essential chemicals for Grignard reaction chemistry.
A full range of semi-scale equipment is planned with the next phase of investment incorporating two glass lined reactor vessels (100 litres and 50 litres) as well as two 30-litre stainless steel reactors for use in pilot plant applications.