Summary: As of 29 Oct., the construction of Hwatson Biochem's vitamin base project (Phase I) has been basically completed.

It was reported by the media that as of 29 Oct., the construction of vitamin base project (Phase I) had been basically completed by Shandong Hwatson Biochem Co., Ltd. (Hwatson Biochem). The facilities including production workshops, warehouses, comprehensive office building, and ancillary facilities have been built. The stand-alone trial run of production equipment has been completed. The trial run of production equipment with water pipes connected is being carried out. The project is expected to be put into operation in Dec.

Overview of Hwatson Biochem's vitamin base project (Phase I)

• Total investment: USD166.48 million (RMB1.2 billion)
• Type of project: New construction
• Construction site location: North Expansion Area, Lingang Green Chemical Park, Binhai District, Weifang City, Shandong Province
• Site area: 22 ha
• Construction details: Over 1,700 (sets of) devices were purchased. The VB5 production facilities in the company's old production plant were relocated and expanded. The ancillary production facilities for beta-Alanine were built. The production facilities for VB1 were built.
• Product scheme:
• Main products: vitamin B5, beta-Alanine, L-Pantolactone, and vitamin B1
• By-products: ammonium sulphate, calcium sulphate, and sodium chloride
• Number of budgeted posts: 275
• Anticipated economic benefits: This project is expected to generate a yearly sales income of USD166.48 million (RMB1.2 billion), after it is put into operation.

As for production techniques of this project, in order to answer the authorities' call for environmental protection upgrading, the company replaced the chemical synthesis technique with biological enzyme technique, which can lower the emissions of pollutants and reduce the energy consumption. The intermittent reaction was replaced with continuous flow reaction, which can improve the production conversion rate by 10%–15% and decrease the volume of hazardous wastes generated.

As for production equipment, the use of fully-closed flow reactor can ensure the safety of reaction process. The continuous flow device, equipped with full automatic operation system, can improve the level of automation of production process.

Hwatson Biochem's old production plant is located in Haifeng Road, Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Park, Binhai District, with 2,000 t/a of capacity for VB5 built within. Due to the re-accreditation of local chemical parks, the address of Hwatson Biochem's old production plant has been designated as an area that is outside the "chemical park" category. In Aug., 2016, the local authority issued a notice to Hwatson Biochem, ordering a complete relocation. Therefore, the company chose a new address and relocated as well as expanded its production plant; it commenced the construction of this project in Sept., 2019 to achieve that.

The VB5 capacity in its old production plant will be shut down after this project is put into operation. In its new production plant, the company not only expanded the capacity for VB5 and built production workshops that are up to the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards, so as to improve the product quality. The production specifications were also upgraded from feed-grade VB5 to pharmaceutical-grade VB5. Additionally, the synthesis technique that was independently researched and developed by Hwatson Biochem will be applied in the production of VB1, a new product.

Hwatson Biochem revealed that since the national authorities put forward the goals of building a modernised industrial system and accelerating the green transformation of development ways, the company carried out technical renovation of its conventional chemical plant with synthetic biology technologies as well as sped up the renovation by digital and intelligent technologies. Those moves are consistent with the national policies, charting the way for the company's future development.