Biomanufacturing in Tees Valley
Tees Valley is driving UK clean growth, converting sustainable feedstocks into high-value biopharmaceuticals, food and feed, biofuels and biochemical products.
The Tees Valley area has an established integrated industrial economy, an efficient local supply chain and significant academic connections.
With new biomanufacturing processes and techniques available, sustainable and profitable growth makes achieving net zero a realistic goal.
Location:
Tees Valley
Investment type:
Foreign direct investment
Sector:
Chemicals, Healthcare and life sciences, Biopharmaceuticals
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Find out howSector and market opportunity
The UK is at the forefront of the growing biomanufacturing sector, building upon the established chemicals and bioscience excellence that already exists.
Biomanufacturing can bring positive low-carbon solutions to industrial sectors, with potentially viable routes to clean growth.
Establishing a base in the Tees Valley region gives investors a huge chance to develop, scale up and commercialise sustainable manufacturing processes in biopharmaceuticals, food and feed, biochemicals and fuels. All of these are multi-billion global industries.
Growth prospects
With the increasing use of biomanufacturing, the global industrial biotechnology market is set to be worth £432 billion by 2026.
Location
The region is a de-risked biomanufacturing location with excellent research and innovation facilities. The North East of England contains the largest cluster of process, chemicals and energy companies in the UK.
Tees Valley is also home to the largest integrated chemical complex in the UK, and the second largest in Western Europe in terms of manufacturing capacity. Companies active locally include Marlow Foods, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Calysta and GlaxoSmithKline.
Connectivity
The region is a major hub for the movement of rail freight. A number of rail-connected facilities are in operation, handling more than 100 freight trains each week.
Darlington Station offers fast passenger rail links to the rest of the UK, including London and Edinburgh.
There’s also direct access to over 200 international destinations from 4 nearby airports including Teesside International and Manchester.
Connected to the global supply chain, the ports of Tees and Hartlepool are key assets to the area. The Tees, England’s largest exporting port , is also the UK’s best-connected feeder port.
Local talent and skills
There’s over 8,000 highly skilled workers employed nearby in the biosciences industry.
With 5 leading universities in the area, there are over 2,000 industry-ready graduates every year, specialising in chemistry, biology and engineering. Research and expertise
The National Horizons Centre is Teesside University’s £22 million centre of excellence for the biosciences and healthcare sector.
The Centre for Process Innovation is a leading independent technology innovation centre and founding member of the UK Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult. It has extensive expertise in scaling biotechnologies for multiple markets and industry sectors.
Region Spotlight
North of England
The North of England is recognised as a global centre for creativity and design and attracts thriving international investment. This heritage of expertise and manufacturing know-how is well established on the world stage, and historically gave birth to the Industrial Revolution.
Enabling clean growth
As the world moves away from the use of fossil fuels, there is increasing global demand for low-carbon solutions from a range of sectors.
The region provides industry with viable routes to clean growth, with a location offering an integrated and skilled biomanufacturing ecosystem.
Local and national government support
The Tees Valley Combined Authority helps businesses plan their investment and access the support and finance necessary for growth. It also ensures businesses work successfully with the Tees Valley Business Board.
Local incentives and funding include the Teesside Freeport, which offers tax and customs benefits to eligible businesses and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which offers early and later stage debt and equity finance to SMEs.
Success stories
Calysta
Calysta is a global leader in biotechnology. It develops and manufactures sustainable protein ingredients from new sources, which can feed the world’s growing population without further damage to the planet.
Calysta’s success in the UK means it can now approach the global market rapidly. The first commercial production of FeedKind® is now expected in 2022.
The company anticipates producing over 500,000 megatonnes (MT) of FeedKind® protein per annum by 2030, with production sites located strategically around the world.
Ensus
Ensus UK Ltd is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of the renewable transport fuel, bioethanol. The business operates a biorefinery on the Wilton site, Teesside.
The company also produces a high-quality protein animal feed, reducing the UK’s need for less sustainable imports.
Ensus also works closely with its suppliers to reduce Greenhouse gas emission in the total supply chain and to guarantee and improve the sustainability of its feedstocks.
