Summary: The EI report of Haiwen Biotech's 10,000 t/a vitamin B3 project (Draft for soliciting public opinions) was publicised by the local authority in late Jan.

Submitted by Jiangxi Haiwen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Haiwen Biotech), the Environmental Impact (EI) report of 10,000 t/a vitamin B3 project (Draft for soliciting public opinions) was publicised on the website of the People's Government of Xingguo County during the period from 29 Jan. to 9 Feb. Previously, the EI report of this project was publicised for the first time in late Nov. 2022. (For more information, please refer to Vitamins China E-News 202212: "Haiwen Biotech: two vitamin projects being advanced".)

Project overview

• Total investment: USD8.89 million (RMB60.00 million)
• Investment for environmental protection purposes: USD894,921 (RMB6.04 million)
• Construction site location: Xingguo County Economic Development Zone, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province
• Site area: 2,200 square metres
• Construction details: Based on the company's on-going "cosmetic-grade nicotinamide, NMN, and its derivatives (coenzyme I and coenzyme II) project", the reserved workshops will be utilised and be expanded, which involves setting up two processing workshops for two respective dosage forms for production. The warehouses, logistics facilities, ancillary facilities, public facilities, and environmental protection facilities in the aforementioned on-going project will also be used by this project.
• Product scheme (designed production capacity):
• 10,000 t/a for vitamin B3: 5,000 t/a for nicotinamide (pharmaceutical grade, content: 99.5%–99.95%) and 5,000 t/a for nicotinic acid (pharmaceutical grade, content: 99.5%–100.5%)
• 1,500 t/a for ammonium chloride (mass fraction≥99%)
• Budgeted posts: 30 new workers will be recruited for this project.
• Annual working days: 300 days

Haiwen Biotech specialises in the R&D of biological feed and biochemical product technologies as well as production and sale of specialty chemical products. In March 2022, Haiwen Biotech acquired 100% of shares in Anhui Redpont Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Redpont Biotech) at an auction, which were originally owned by Nanjing Red Sun Co., Ltd. Currently, Redpont Biotech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Haiwen Biotech. Redpont Biotech, one of the major VB3 producers in China, has 20,000 t/a of capacity for VB3 products that cover feed grade and food grade.

As the company's strength continues to grow, the number of raw materials needed in production increases, and the sales network keeps expanding, this project is implemented with the purposes of further enlarging the business scale and enabling the company to better meet market demand, according to Haiwen Biotech. Meanwhile, implementing 10,000 t/a VB3 project can also extend the VB3 product scope of "cosmetic-grade nicotinamide, NMN, and its derivatives (coenzyme I and coenzyme II) project" from cosmetic grade to pharmaceutical grade.

With regard to the production of this project, Haiwen Biotech will apply the "chemical-enzyme cascade process", which is advanced in China and comes with independent intellectual property rights. This process is jointly researched and developed by Zhejiang University, Anhui Costar Biochemical Co., Ltd., and Redpont Biotech. It features an efficient, safe, and green "chemical-enzyme cascade technique" industrialised production setup for nicotinamide, originally integrates biocatalysis with chemical catalysis, and incorporates a complete set of straightforward and efficient production techniques for nicotinamide; it also significantly reduces the energy consumption and emissions, as well as makes the treatment of "three wastes" (waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste) discharged from the production much more easier. The process has been industrialised by Redpont Biotech for the production of VB3; VB3 produced is up to the relevant standard in Europe.