Evonik estab­lishes new enzymat­ic pro­cess for serine

Evonik Indus­tries has developed a new, more effi­cient pro­cess for the enzymat­ic syn­thes­is of the amino acid ser­ine — it is, among oth­er things, required for the pro­duc­tion of phar­ma­ceut­ic­al ingredients. To imple­ment the new enzymat­ic syn­thes­is on a large scale, the Group has expan­ded the exist­ing pro­duc­tion plants at its Nan­ning site in China. This new pro­cess allows Evonik to man­u­fac­ture ser­ine in all enan­tio­mer­ic forms: L‑serine, D‑serine, and DL-ser­ine. ​“With the expan­sion of the pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies in Nan­ning we can pro­duce ser­ine in all forms while being fully back­ward integ­rated,” says Dr. Jean-Luc Her­beaux, Head of the Health Care Busi­ness Line of Evonik. “ Dr. Thomas Her­mann, Vice Pres­id­ent of the Rex­im Product Line adds: ​“Because of our tech­no­lo­gic­al expert­ise, we are able to offer all ser­ine-deriv­at­ives cur­rently on the mar­ket. This gives Evonik a unique value pro­pos­i­tion in the mar­ket.” L‑serine is one of the non-essen­tial amino acids that are nat­ur­ally occur­ing in the human body. It plays an import­ant role in pro­tein syn­thes­is. The main areas of applic­a­tion of L‑serine are nutri­tion and phar­ma­ceut­ics, but it is also used in the cos­met­ics industry. In the area of nutri­tion, amino acids are, for example, used in hypo­aller­gen­ic fol­low-on milk for new­borns with lactose intol­er­ance, or sports nutri­tion. L‑serine is used in phar­ma­ceut­ics as a build­ing block for phar­ma­ceut­ic­al ingredi­ents or in par­enter­al nutri­tion. In the cos­met­ics sec­tor it is mainly used in skin and hair care products. D‑serine and DL-ser­ine are used for the syn­thes­is of vari­ous phar­ma­ceut­ic­al ingredi­ents.

Com­pany information

Evonik is one of the world lead­ers in spe­cialty chem­ic­als. Prof­it­able growth and a sus­tained increase in the value of the com­pany form the heart of Evonik’s cor­por­ate strategy. Its activ­it­ies focus on the key mega­trends health, nutri­tion, resource effi­ciency and glob­al­iz­a­tion. Evonik bene­fits spe­cific­ally from its innov­at­ive prowess and integ­rated tech­no­logy plat­forms. Evonik is act­ive in over 100 coun­tries around the world. In fisc­al 2012 more than 33,000 employ­ees gen­er­ated sales of around €13.4 bil­lion and an oper­at­ing profit (adjus­ted EBITDA) of about €2.4 bil­lion (exclud­ing Real Estate in both cases). Source: idw/​Evonik Indus­tries AG