Summary: Huijia Biotech and Hirye Biotech are working on their stevia projects, with EI reports being publicised in late March and in early April, respectively.

On 27 March, the environmental impact (EI) report of Xinjiang Huijia Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Huijia Biotech)'s stevia production and processing project (Phase I) was accepted and publicised.

Overview of Huijia Biotech's project:

• Construction nature: New construction
• Location: In a rented standard factory in Huocheng Economic Development Zone, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
• Total investment: USD22.21 million (RMB152.80 million), of which USD585,277 (RMB4.03 million) for environmental protection
• Site area: 39,007 m²
• Construction content: To build a production workshop, a stevia production line and supporting facilities such as office building, raw materials warehouse, auxiliary materials warehouse, dormitory
• Production capacity: 1,000 t/a stevia
• Consumption of main raw material: 10,000 t/a of dried leaves of Stevia rebaudiana sourced from Huijia Biotech's Stevia rebaudiana planting base
• Production process: Stevia is produced from the dried leaves of Stevia rebaudiana by extraction
• Labour quota: 50 employees
• Working system: Two 8h shifts per 24h workday, totalling 200 days annually
• Construction period: From Dec. 2022 to March 2023 (The construction of this project started before the EI report was approved and was completed by the time of the publication of the EI report. Equipment for the main facilities has been installed and is in the commissioning phase)

 

Huijia Biotech has a 26.67 km² planting base which functions on the "company + cooperative + farmer" model. Huijia Biotech's stevia production line was officially operational on 28 Nov., 2022, turning out 4 tonnes of stevia products on a daily basis by processing 30 tonnes of raw materials.

On 6 April, the EI report of Dongtai Hirye Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Hirye Biotech)'s 10,000 t/a stevia deep processing technology upgrading project was publicised. This project is designed to change the production process of the 10,000 t/a stevia production project to further extract chlorogenic acid and stevia polysaccharide from Stevia rebaudiana by resin adsorption and reduce water usage.

Hirye Biotech's 10,000 t/a stevia production project is intended to be constructed over two phases. Phase I with a capacity of 3,000 t/a of stevia passed the environmental inspection and acceptance in 2018. But Hirye Biotech decided that it will not build Phase II with a capacity of 7,000 t/a of stevia. After years of research, Hirye Biotech finds that there are many healthy substances in Stevia rebaudiana besides stevia, especially chlorogenic acid and stevia polysaccharide. But since the 10,000 t/a stevia production project directly extracts stevia from the dried leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a lot of healthy substances in Stevia rebaudiana were wasted. In addition, the original process adopts the water extraction method and uses a large number of flocculants such as lime to remove impurities, which consumes a large amount of water and further produces solid wastes.

Overview of Hirye Biotech's 10,000 t/a stevia deep processing technology upgrading project:

• Construction nature: Retrofitting
• Location: Dongtai City (county-level), Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province
• Total investment: USD87.20 million (RMB600 million), of which USD331,371 (RMB2.28 million) for environmental protection
• Phase I: USD14.53 million (RMB100 million), of which USD127,898 (RMB880,000)
• Phase II: USD72.67 million (RMB500 million), of which USD203,474 (RMB1.40 million)
• Site area: 302,667 m²
• Production capacity:
• Total: 10,000 t/a of stevia; 7,000 t/a of chlorogenic acid; 15,000 t/a of stevia polysaccharide; 57,000 t/a of feed ingredient
• Phase I: 4,500 t/a of stevia; 3,150 t/a of chlorogenic acid; 6,750 t/a of stevia polysaccharide; 25,650 t/a of feed ingredient
• Phase II: 5,500 t/a of stevia; 3,850 t/a of chlorogenic acid; 8,250 t/a of stevia polysaccharide; 31,350 t/a of feed ingredient
• Production process: Crush leaves of Stevia rebaudiana; filter the extraction solution containing stevia, chlorogenic acid and stevia polysaccharide; adsorbed effluent containing stevia polysaccharide is obtained after substances like chlorogenic acid and stevia are selectively absorbed by the resin; desorption solutions containing stevia and chlorogenic acid are obtained after the absorption column is washed to remove impurities and de-absorbed; the adsorption effluent containing stevia polysaccharide is dealcoholised and concentrated with a closed pipeline and a closed membrane machine, and the desorption liquid containing chlorogenic acid and the desorption liquid containing stevia are dealcoholised, filtered, desalted and decolourised with the closed membrane machine and the closed pipeline; the finished products are obtained after the three kinds of concentrated solutions undergo the evaporation, concentration, plate and frame filtration, spray drying and packaging
• Construction period: 8 months

 

Besides the above-mentioned projects, Hirye Biotech also has a project called stevia production line upgrading project which plans to use the biogass generated in the production of stevia to produce steam. This project is constructed over two phases. Phase I producing 28,800 tonnes of steam per annum passed the environmental inspection and acceptance in March 2023. As for Phase II, Hirye Biotech originally planned to build a capacity of 79,200 t/a of steam, but as there is insufficient biogass, it will only build a 5 t/d biogas boiler, producing 36,000 tonnes of steam a year.