As J1 Technologies celebrates its jubilee year, Kevin Burgess, Managing Director, explains how the company has provided problem solving expertise, and formulated surfactants for a range of applications, for the past 25 years.
J1 Technologies Limited is a speciality chemicals company focused on the development of surfactants and formulated products, through application testing and research. Established by Kevin Burgess and Peter Minister in 1999, the company’s founders had a clear view of how they could add value with exceptional technical service and the formulation of problem-solving solutions. Over the past 25 years, J1 Technologies has grown and earned a reputation in its sector for delivering bespoke solutions for specific problems, and it is now a thriving organisation that provides products and solutions across multiple application areas including wastewater treatment, textiles, paper, foods, lubricants and coatings.
When speaking with Managing Director Kevin Burgess, it is clear he has fond memories of the company’s early days and the time he spent setting it up with his business partner Peter Minister.
“Before forming the company, Peter and I secured factory premises on Carrington Business Park near Manchester, in the old Shell Styrene Development Building,” he explains. “The Business Park has recently been knocked down for housing, but back in 1999 it was owned and operated by Shell to give flexible working space to new start-up companies, and it offered short-term leases to incentivise growth and to help companies move on to bigger premises.”
He continues, “After many bottles of wine we were still no closer to a company name but had started referring to the business as J1, which was the business park unit number for the factory. The name stuck and the company was incorporated as J1 Technologies Limited.”
As with many start-ups, money was very tight to begin with, but an initial investment of £10,000 allowed Kevin and Peter to purchase a few second-hand stainless steel mixing vessels from JW Whewells in Bury.
“For the first three months, I was the only official employee,” says Kevin. “I was supported by Peter’s original company Chemlink Specialities – a distributor for personal care raw materials – with formulation expertise and accounts.”
However, within a few short weeks, these intrepid entrepreneurs were able to help Omnia-chem, a paper service company, with quick product development to solve a raw material shortage.
“The first order was for 20 tonnes bulk,” remembers Kevin. “It was manufactured overnight and supplied to Aylesford News Print within a week of the initial development.”
And that was how J1 Technologies began. Over the next two years, J1 Technologies developed twenty products for Omnia-chem – all to help with issues in the wet-end process of paper factories.
The rest, as they say, is history. Most of the company’s current employees have been there for over a decade and, as Kevin says, “It’s a team effort.”
Product ranges
J1 Technologies currently provides a range of surfactants and formulated products, all of which are manufactured at the company’s Trafford Park site, which opened in 2010. The company’s commercial reactors range in size from 400 litres to 10,000 litres, and manufacturing is generally performed using flexible batch processes, with an annual capacity of around 12,000 tonnes per annum.
Speciality processes include phosphation, sulphation, esterification, amidation, neutralisation, emulsification and dispersion. J1 Technologies also offers manufacturing of products based on the customer’s formulations, from small trial batches to bulk quantities. All products are made to ISO 9001 standards using procedures that have a low impact on the environment.
J1 Technologies’ current range of reacted and formulated products includes surfactants, which are among the most widespread and commercially important chemicals, as they are used in the manufacture of detergents and cleaning agents, emulsifiers, wetting agents, foaming agents, antistatic additives or dispersants. Surfactant molecules comprise both a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, and it is this particular quality that enables water and oil to mix, forms foam and facilitates the detachment of dirt.
Around 40% of the company’s products are provided to domestic customers within the UK, and the remaining 60% is shipped to overseas customers in 35 countries across the world. This distribution covers multiple application areas, including wastewater treatment, textiles, paper, foods, lubricants and coatings.
However, while Kevin is proud of the company’s extensive range of products built over the past quarter-century, he is keen to stress that J1 Technologies’ key strength lies in providing its customers with bespoke solutions.
“We have become known in the industry for solving specific problems, and improving product and process performance,” he explains.
Problem solving
J1 Technologies has a product development programme that is designed to assist customers’ specific application requirements. With dedicated laboratories for quality control, analysis, reaction process development, formulation and application testing, and pilot plant facilities for process development of between 20 to 400 litres, the company is able to offer a flexible and responsive approach.
“Our laboratory team has proven its expertise in the development, formulation and production of new surfactant-based products and process additives,” declares Kevin. “Anything from advice on improving and optimising existing formulations to solve specific problems, replacing hazardous components with more acceptable alternatives, to testing product performance with simulated test conditions – we can respond quickly and provide the relevant technical advice, information and samples where appropriate. We can even help to optimise the manufacturing process.”
Process optimisation
For example, as mentioned above, one of J1 Technologies’ first big contracts was to help with the development of twenty products for a paper service company. Keeping the whole system clean is a core challenge in paper manufacturing – the machines, rolls and wire all need to be kept completely clear of dirt and debris, otherwise spots appear on the paper, lowering the paper quality and frequently making it unfit for its intended purpose. The need for continuous cleaning means that a large volume of water needs to flow around the system, which manufacturers like to keep in circulation for as long as possible. Efforts are taken to minimise the consumption of water and cleaning fluids, as well as the downtime required to change the circulating water.
J1 Technologies’ achievement was to provide surfactants that cleaned all parts of the manufacturing machinery effectively and extended the amount of time that a volume of water could be kept in circulation. This not only saved water – it also saved the paper mill a lot of money as there was less downtime and fewer paper breakages. J1 Technologies’ solution resulted in water, time and cost savings, while enabling the customer to produce higher quality paper.
Replacing hazardous components
Another example comes from the adhesives sector. Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) are a type of non-reactive adhesive which forms a bond when pressure is applied to stick the adhesive to a surface. PSA applications include tapes and labels, and they are widely used all over the world.
Until fairly recently, nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE) – part of the alkylphenol ethoxylate group of non-ionic surfactants – was used as a raw material in many industrial and consumer products. NPE was used for emulsifiers, dispersive agents, surfactants and wetting agents. However, due to its toxicity, NPE has been progressively banned over the past decade from a number of applications, including PSA.
Recognising a gap in the market, J1 Technologies embarked on a development programme to replace NPE in the production of emulsifiers used to manufacture PSA. As well as replacing the old toxic material, the J1 Technologies laboratory team was determined to also provide notable performance benefits with their bespoke solution.
“By choosing the right emulsifier, you can enhance adhesive properties,” explains Kevin. “Our emulsifier has better mechanical stability, so tape and label making machines can run more quickly and the manufacturers have less downtime.”
This case certainly appears to tick all the boxes, so it’s no surprise that J1 Technologies’ range of emulsifiers is shipped to multiple global customers on a regular basis.
Solving specific problems
J1 Technologies has been involved in developing systems to help refineries and tank farms to clean and decontaminate their systems – from basic oil tankers to oil crackers – more thoroughly and a lot more safely.
Traditionally, cleaning an oil container of any size involved employing someone to enter the container – equipped with protecting clothing, mask and power hose – to manually clean it. This had obvious safety concerns for the individual doing the work, and it was difficult to manually clean oil and sludge from a surface (especially under those conditions). The standards of oil and sludge removal could be variable, and the wastewater from the cleaning process needed to be managed carefully for safe and responsible disposal.
J1 Technologies’ solution is based on a “No Man Entry” approach. The container can be cleaned entirely through the application of non-hazardous cleaning chemicals, removing the need for human exposure, improving safety and providing a better clean.
“The other great thing about this solution is that we can then split the effluent,” says Kevin. “The hydrocarbon goes straight back to the customer as recovered product, and the water left behind from our process is so clean that it can just go straight down the drain.”
J1 Technologies’ environmental decontamination products are offered in partnership with one of its sister companies – CORE Additive Technologies, which provides chemical decontamination and cleaning products, and industrial services, for oil and gas companies and installations. Together, the two companies are thought to provide an unbeatable level of technical expertise.
Sustainability
Like most manufacturing companies in the UK today, J1 Technologies takes sustainability very seriously. In fact, J1 Technologies is proud to have produced its surfactants under the IPPC system since 2001, meaning that for the vast majority of the company’s history it has been classified as a ‘low impact to the environment’ site.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is a United Nations established group of scientists that assesses climate change science. The IPCC uses the information it gathers to provide policymakers with scientific information to help them develop climate change policies, and to set targets and standards for various activities – such as manufacturing.
“We have a permit that is regulated under the IPCC by the UK Environment Agency, and we are audited every year to make sure we are continuing to meet their criteria,” explains Kevin.
Those criteria set strict limits on a range of factors, including noise levels, emission levels, water and energy usage. For example, the J1 Technologies site at Trafford Park has consistently complied with the following criteria.
• Wastewater or effluent release is below set limits, and any effluent release is collected for safe disposal; there is no groundwater release from the site.
• There is no release of polluting emissions, and there have been no complaints about odours from the Trafford Park site since it opened in 2010.
• There is no excess waste production; off-spec material is sold or reused or reworked into future products, and all other waste is either recycled or removed by a registered waste carrier
• Energy consumption is below set limits, and has been further reduced with energy-efficient lighting in recent years.
• Noise levels are below set limits, and background noise levels during operation are not significantly higher than normal background noise levels.
• Accident prevention and containment measures are in place, in case of any spills or other unexpected incidents.
The IPCC criteria also require that the company should have an ISO 9001 system in operation, which is an international standard for quality management systems. In fact, J1 Technologies shares its commitment to ISO compliance with its two sister companies – CORE Additive Technologies and Solupak. All three companies comply with ISO 9001 (for quality management), ISO 45001 (for occupational health and safety) and 14001 (for environmental performance).
As already noted, work performed by the J1 Technologies laboratory team can help customers to optimise their processes, and they can also help to save water and energy. Sister company Solupak Ltd is taking this to another level with its provision of the Soluclean cleaning range. From surface to washroom, manual to machine cleaning, these concentrated cleaning products are delivered as water-soluble formulations in water soluble sachets.
“You just need to add the water,” explains Kevin.
Saving on unnecessary plastic packaging, and avoiding much of the pollution (and cost) associated with the transportation of larger bottles of ready-diluted cleaning products, the product range is suitable and safe for use in many environments and spaces. The Solupak products are already being used across a variety of different industries, including transportation, manufacturing and retail, and they have been shown to be safe and effective at cleaning schools and offices.
What’s next?
J1 Technologies celebrated its 25th anniversary with a race day at Haydock Park Racecourse – one of Britain’s top racing venues. The company invited over a hundred people for the celebrations, including staff, partners and a small number of other individuals who have supported them strongly over the years.
As for what comes next, Kevin seems to think that success is unlikely to change the company or its focus.
“I’m pretty sure we’re just going to carry on doing what we’ve been doing,” he says. “We are working in an industry that has an ever-changing landscape for regulations, and we see more and more raw materials are being taken out of the market, so there is always going to be room for us to develop new and better products.”
If you would like to speak to J1 Technologies about their range of products, or if you need their help solving a problem with one of their great bespoke solutions, then get in touch. It is going to be fascinating to see what this very talented company manages to come up with next!
Kevin Burgess
Managing Director
J1 Technologies Ltd
Manchester, UK
T: +44 (0) 161 875 2110
E: kevin.burgess@j1technologies.com
www.j1technologies.com
