Summary: The EI report of Dafeng Hegno's "technical renovation project for vitamin H, vitamin B6, and vitamin D3 oil" was being publicised until late Nov.

During the period from 17 Nov. to 30 Nov., the Environmental Impact (EI) report of "technical renovation project for vitamin H, vitamin B6, and vitamin D3 oil" was publicised by Dafeng Hegno Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (Dafeng Hegno) on its website.

Project overview

• Total investment: USD27.94 million (RMB199.00 million)
• Construction site location: Dafeng Port Petrochemical New Materials Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province
• Construction details:
• The 50 t/a vitamin H (spec.: 98.5%) project, which has been built in the production plant, will undergo technical renovation and expansion.
• The 2,000 t/a vitamin B6 project, the construction of which has been approved by the local authority but has not yet started, will be discarded, except for the refining-drying-packing section. (Refining-drying-packing section passed the post-completion environmental protection acceptance inspection in Dec., 2014. But the rest of the construction sections of this project have not been built.) New production capacity for vitamin B6 will be built.
• New production capacity for vitamin D3 oil will be built.
• As for the public and ancillary facilities, the existing ones will be utilised.
• Product scheme (designed production capacity):
• 100 t/a for vitamin H (replacing the original 50 t/a of capacity)
• 1,000 t/a for vitamin B6
• 60 t/a for vitamin D3 oil

Product specifications of vitamin H

• Before project implementation: 50 t/a for 98.5% non-pharmaceutical grade VH
• After project implementation: 85 t/a for 98% non-pharmaceutical grade VH, 10 t/a for 99% non-pharmaceutical grade VH, and 5 t/a for 99% pharmaceutical grade VH

Production process

• Before project implementation: bromination-amination-cyclisation-reduction-thionation-Grignard reaction & hydrogenation-hydrolysis-vitamin H
• After project implementation: Based on the original process, there will be three new synthesis routes.
• 98% non-pharmaceutical grade VH: With fumaric acid as the starting material, the new production steps will be introduced, including esterification, elimination, debenzylation, acid precipitation, etc.
• 99% non-pharmaceutical grade VH: The thio reaction product from the production process of 98% non-pharmaceutical grade VH will be used as the starting material. The starting material will undergo the production steps including Grignard reaction, acid precipitation, elimination, hydrogenation, hydrolysis, docking, debenzylation, etc.
• 99% pharmaceutical grade VH: The hydrogenation product from the production process of 98% non-pharmaceutical grade VH will be used as the starting material. The starting material will undergo the steps including refining, debenzylation, cyclisation, etc.

The project will also retrofit and upgrade the environmental protection treatment facilities in the production plant, which will enable the treatment facilities to recycle by-products, and therefore lower the volume of solid wastes generated. In this way, some of the by-products can be turned into resources. And the company can gain advantage in environmental protection by implementing this project.

Apart from VH and VB6 (refining-drying-packing), Dafeng Hegno's plant also produces 10,000 t/a of VE oil (feed grade and food grade) and 16,000 t/a of VE powder (feed grade). The construction of 2,000 t/a 2% biotin powder project and 2,500 t/a VD3 powder project has started and has not yet been completed. The capacity for VD3 oil, which will be built by this project, will serve the VD3 powder project that is being built.