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The Production of Vitamin B2: N O CH
The Production of Vitamin B2: N O CH
94)
CH3 CH3
1 2
The Commission of the Nomenclature of Biological Chemistry, 1960. For a more detailed account see Ullmanns Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1996.
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FIGURE 1
Glucose
Fermentation
Ribose
Xylidine
Fermentation
Ribamine
Raw riboflavin
Source: BASF.
Fermentation
8. The more recent single-stage fermentation route is used by a number of producers, including BASF, Roche, and Hubei Guangji. As it has a single main stage, there are substantial cost savings compared with the multi-stage chemical process. Each producer uses its own variant of the process with different strains of micro-organism and different raw materials.
9. The fermentation plant itself is relatively straightforward as it typically uses simple mixing/ stirring vessels and conventional purification technologies. After separating the biomass, and evaporating and drying the concentrate, an enriched product with a vitamin B2 content of up to 80 per cent can be obtained.
Raw materials
10. The producers use different basic raw materials. Vegetable oil, glucose or molasses may act as the source of carbon (the significant building block for producing vitamin B2). They vary greatly in price and carbon content.
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Productivity of micro-organisms
13. The productivity of biochemical processes is normally described in terms of their conversion rate and their space-time yield. The conversion rate is the proportion of the carbon-source raw material that is converted into the finished product. It dictates the amount of raw material required. The space-time yield is the amount of product made per unit volume per unit time. It determines the length of time required for the fermentation and the size of vessels needed. Both measures vary greatly with the micro-organism and the raw material used. 14. The micro-organisms used by different producers have a wide range of conversion rates and space-time yields. A slow organism may take many days to complete the vitamin B2 fermentation. In this case, the manufacturer will need numerous fermenting vessels, resulting in additional capital costs compared with producers using faster organisms. Producers organisms also convert different amounts of the raw material into vitamin B2 before the fermentation stops. 15. Producers devote considerable effort to improving the productivity of their organisms, either by natural mutation or by GM. GM may result in more productive organisms; the savings resulting from this increased productivity can offset the extra containment costs involved in working with GMOs (see paragraph 17).
Effluent disposal
16. By contrast with the fermentation/chemical synthesis process, the fermentation method makes little use of toxic solvents or reagents. The main waste products are edible residues of the production micro-organism and its growth medium which (subject to containment requirements) can either be used as animal feed or dealt with by a conventional sewage treatment plant. This significantly reduces the waste disposal costs, particularly for producers using non-GM micro-organisms.
Containment
17. All producers need to have a plant containment system that prevents stray organisms or chemicals from entering the process and contaminating the fermentation. Those using safe wild-type or self-cloned micro-organisms need to minimize releases of the organisms into the environment. On the other hand, producers using GMOs need to design their plants and procedures to achieve high containment: that is the prevention of any escape of the GMO into the environment. This adds significantly to plant complexity and effluent disposal costs. 172
Feed-grade vitamin B2
19. The 80 per cent pure vitamin B2 produced by fermentation is suitable for use in animal feed without further refining. (The balance of the material consists of the edible residue of the production micro-organisms.) A higher proportion of vitamin B2 produced by fermentation is therefore used in animal feeds than is the case for the chemically-synthesized product (see Chapter 4).
Food-grade product
20. Either fermented feed-grade vitamin B2 or chemically-produced raw vitamin B2 may act as the base material for making the purer product required for human food or pharmaceutical use. The same technology is used to refine either the 96 per cent pure chemically-synthesized product or the 80 per cent pure fermented product. In outline, the procedure involves the use of a simple vessel in which the unpurified product is dissolved in sodium hydroxide, crystallized with hydrochloric acid and then cleansed with a solvent.
21. Starting from fermented vitamin B2, the purification step needs to remove about 20 per cent of the material, which is of microbial or vegetal origin. BASF told us that the cost of purification could exceed 40 per cent of total operating costs.
22. By contrast, starting from chemically-produced vitamin B2, only about 2 per cent of the material needs to be removed. The purification plant can consequently be smaller. Manufacturers using the chemical production route to produce vitamin B2 are therefore at less of a disadvantage if they produce the food-grade product rather than feed-grade vitamin B2. Some chemical-based producers occasionally sell this higher-grade product for feed use.
24. BASF estimated the producers cash operating costs for feed-grade vitamin B2 in an internal benchmarking exercise. Figure 2 illustrates our analysis of the pre-merger cost ranking that results from combining these with our estimates of plant capacities. No allowance was made for depreciation or any return on investment. BASFs analysis clearly demonstrates the wide range of cash production costs.
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TABLE 1 Production methods used by vitamin B2 manufacturers Fermentation yield (kg B2/kg carbon source) %
Process
Micro-organism used
Comments
BASF proposed
Roche
Shanghai Yongxing
Hubei Guangji
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FIGURE 2
25. Figure 3 shows the corresponding estimates of comparative cash operating costs for feed-grade vitamin B2 after the merger and BASFs planned investment. It demonstrates a substantial improvement in BASFs cost competitiveness. FIGURE 3
Ranking of feed-grade vitamin B2 production costs against capacity after merger and investment
26. Figure 4 illustrates the ranking of the producers cash operating costs for food-grade vitamin B2 before the merger, as estimated in the same internal BASF benchmarking exercise. No cost is shown for the ADM/Aventis joint venture, as it does not produce food-grade vitamin B2 (see paragraph 37).
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FIGURE 4
27. Figure 5 shows the corresponding estimates of comparative cash operating costs for food-grade vitamin B2 after the merger and BASFs planned investment. It again demonstrates a substantial improvement in BASFs cost competitiveness before allowing for depreciation and a return on investment. FIGURE 5
Ranking of food-grade vitamin B2 production costs against capacity after merger and investment
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BASF
28. BASFs fermentation plant at Ludwigshafen has a capacity of [!] tonnes a year and [Details omitted. See note on page iv.]. BASF has fermented vitamin B2 for 13 yearslonger than the other producers. 29. BASF has purification capacity to produce [!] tonnes a year of food-grade vitamin B2. 30. BASF carries out R&D into new strains and processes with a view to increasing output and reducing costs. This includes cooperative projects with university research institutes. Its annual R&D budget is around 1.3 million a year, or about [!] per cent of total sales. It has been able to enhance its process over time through strain improvement (predominantly mutation) and media development. Over the last ten years, this has resulted in a [!] per cent increase in its plants effective capacity and a [!] per cent saving in raw material costs. 31. BASF considers that the resulting process has a comparatively high yield and a potential cost advantage if used on a sufficient scale; it attributes this to using the most efficient organism. The fermentation process is, however, slow and BASF considers that the present plants low capacity leads to high unit fixed costs. Its main raw material, soya oil, is much more expensive than the glucose or molasses used by other producers. 32. [ Details omitted. See note on page iv. ]
Takeda
33. Takeda manufactures 96 per cent pure vitamin B2 by chemical synthesis. Its plant at Hikari in Japan has a capacity of [!] tonnes a year. The main raw material is [ Details omitted. See note on page iv. ]. Takedas production costs are high compared with those of producers using the vitamin B2 fermentation process. 34. Takeda has purification capacity to produce [!] tonnes a year of food-grade vitamin B2.
Roche
35. Roche has recently started trial production of vitamin B2 by fermentation in a new plant at Grenzach, in Germany. This plant is due to come fully on stream during the summer of 2001 and its ultimate capacity is expected to be about [!] tonnes a year. [ Details omitted. See note on page iv. ] 36. Roche has purification capacity to produce 900 tonnes a year of food-grade vitamin B2.
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Chinese producers
38. As we have only been able to obtain limited information from the Chinese producers, we are largely reliant on information supplied by the British Embassy in Beijing, BASF and Roche and on published sources. BASF told us it estimated that the current total capacity of vitamin B2 plants in China was about 1,300 tonnes a year. Roche estimated their total capacity to be 1,850 tonnes a year. Until recently, all the Chinese producers had used a chemical synthesis process similar to that used by Takeda. However, BASF believed that about one-third of Chinese vitamin B2 capacity was now based on the fermentation process. 39. Within the last two years, Hubei Guangji has commenced production of vitamin B2 by fermentation. Its plants capacity is 600 tonnes a year and is expected to increase to 1,000 tonnes a year before the end of 2001. Shanghai Yongxing also has a vitamin B2 plant with a capacity of 400 tonnes a year. Although BASF thought that this company would also start using fermentation technology soon, it informed us that it had no such plans. BASF added that, while there had been two other smaller producers, Tianjin Hebei and Shannaxi Xi, that each had a capacity of about 200 tonnes a year, it thought that these were not now in operation. 40. Chinese producers previously concentrated their exports on the food-grade vitamin B2 market, in which their chemically-manufactured product was most competitive. The introduction of a fermentation plant has recently enabled them to expand their production of feed-grade vitamin B2. 41. BASF told us that Chinese producers enjoyed considerable cost advantages. They had the advantage of using the cheapest raw material (molasses being cheaper than glucose or soya oil). Chinese producers also had lower labour and financing costs and less demanding environmental standards.
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