my country has a large output of enzyme preparations, but the technical level still needs to be improved
The bio-manufacturing industry urgently needs an enhanced version of the "chip"
From the statistical point of view, my country's enzyme preparations have grown rapidly in terms of production and consumption, but because my country's overall market is very large, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Sun Zhoutong
Researcher, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Recently, in the defense review of the key special project of "Green Biomanufacturing" in 2020 organized by the Biological Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, "Industrial Enzyme Creation and Application", one of the six major tasks, has attracted widespread attention in the industry.
"Industrial enzyme preparations are a relatively mature and potential core industry in industrial biotechnology, with tens or even hundreds of times the downstream market amplification effect, so it is known as the "chip" of the biological manufacturing industry." Tianjin Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Researcher Sun Zhoutong of the Institute said in an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily on May 17 that my country has now entered the ranks of the world's leading enzyme production countries and its output has increased, but there is still a certain gap between the performance and the world level.
In the future, my country will move from a large country of enzyme preparations to a powerful country, and it will also need to have more innovative achievements with independent intellectual property rights.
Enzyme preparations are more and more widely used
According to Sun Zhoutong, industrial enzyme preparations are biological products with catalytic function after processing and compounding enzymes, which are mainly used to catalyze various chemical reactions in different application scenarios.
At present, there are more than 3,000 kinds of enzymes reported worldwide, and more than 60 kinds of enzyme preparations have been produced on a large scale.
Industrial enzyme preparations have the characteristics of high catalytic efficiency, good specificity, mild reaction conditions, low energy consumption, and less chemical pollution. Therefore, their application "circle of friends" is expanding and they are widely used in washing, textile, feed, food, etc. Juice processing, dairy products, leather, papermaking, medicine, chemical and other industries, and the level of application technology is also constantly improving.
"In our country, the most widely used industry of enzyme preparations is the food industry. The application of edible enzyme preparations can reach 80%, ranking first in the world." Sun Zhoutong introduced that China has approved more than 50 enzyme preparations for use in the food industry.
For example, in the deep processing of starch, α-amylase, glucoamylase, and glucose isomerase are applied to starch in sequence to produce high fructose syrup, a substitute for sucrose.
In addition, enzyme preparations are also widely used in the wine industry.
"Enzyme preparations used in winemaking can improve wine yield and production efficiency, and the flavor and quality of wine are also significantly improved." Sun Zhoutong said, for example, the combination of aromatic compounds terpenes and sugars in wine will affect the aroma of wine, and terpenes are derived from sugar. The fragrance can be volatilized by freeing it out.
Using β-glucosidase to act on various terpene glucosides can free terpenes and strengthen the aroma of wine.
Some processes in the textile industry will also be applied to enzyme preparations. For example, the warp yarns of fabrics such as cotton and synthetic fibers are mostly sizing before weaving. The size will affect the wettability of the fabric during the dyeing process and hinder the chemical The product is in contact with the fiber, so the fabric has to undergo a desizing process.
The traditional desizing process uses acid and alkali, but the use of amylase for desizing can be modified and bleached to make the fabric softer.
With the demands of environmental and economic and social development, the animal feed sector has stimulated the growth of global enzyme market demand.
"In my country, the demand for feed enzyme preparations has also increased significantly. Especially after the total ban on the addition of antibiotics in my country's feed in 2020, many antibiotics will be replaced by enzymes." Sun Zhoutong introduced, using xylanase, phytase, and glucose oxidation. The feed treated with enzymes can not only improve the nutritional value of the feed, but also have the effect of disease resistance and disease prevention.
The production and consumption of enzyme preparations in my country are growing rapidly
According to the "2018-2022 China's Enzyme Preparation Industry Development Prospects and Investment Risk Avoidance Recommendation Report" issued by the New Thinking Industry Research Center, my country's enzyme preparation industry has undergone long-term continuous development. At this stage, there are 30 types of enzyme preparations that can be produced on a large scale. Many kinds.
In 2017, the production of enzyme preparations in my country reached 1.35 million standard tons. From 2013 to 2017, the compound annual growth rate of enzyme preparations in my country was 10%, and the consumption of enzyme preparations in my country accounted for more than 9% of the global total.
"From a statistical point of view, my country's enzyme preparations have grown rapidly in terms of production and consumption, but because my country's overall market is very large, there is still a lot of room for improvement." Sun Zhoutong believes.
What is gratifying is that my country’s market share of enzyme preparations in the world has increased from less than 10% in the early stage of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" to nearly 30% now. The market competitiveness of products has been greatly improved, and a number of competitive products have emerged. Local enzyme production companies such as Wuhan Xinhuayang, Guangzhou VTR, Shandong Longda, Qingdao Weilan, etc.
In the field of feed enzyme preparations, the research and development level of domestic enzyme preparations and fermentation processes continue to improve, and the production cost continues to decrease. Feed enzyme preparations have not only completed import substitution, occupied most of the domestic market share, and become one of the few foreign exchange earning feeds. One of the varieties of additives.
It is understood that leading companies like VTR have obtained official product registrations in 20 countries in overseas markets, with sales networks covering more than 60 countries and regions including Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and have obtained 18 product certifications all over the world. .
"Although China has made certain breakthroughs in feed enzyme preparations, most of the enzyme preparations in China have the problem that the output is large but the products are not strong." Sun Zhoutong explained, "Although China has solved a lot of problems through development in recent decades. Enzyme preparations have emerged from scratch, but the performance of the product still needs to be improved. For example, the domestic high-temperature amylase has a titer of 10,000 units per milliliter, and the international level is 30,000 units; alkaline protease, domestically produced titer per milliliter 200,000 units, the international level is 400,000 units, the performance gap is still quite obvious."
The direct consequence of poor product performance is that domestic enzyme preparation companies have high costs and low profits.
Data shows that the manufacturing cost of enzyme preparations in my country accounts for 70%-80% of sales, while foreign countries only account for 30%-35%. The profit margin of enterprises is 2-4 times lower than that of foreign companies, which reduces the overall competitive advantage of domestic enzyme preparations.
Improving the competitiveness of the industry depends on technological R&D and innovation
“In order to improve the market competitiveness of enzyme preparations in my country, technological R&D and innovation must keep up, and more innovative technologies with independent intellectual property rights.” Sun Zhoutong believes that if strains and expression systems blindly rely on imports, they will take shortcuts. High-performance enzyme coding genes, high-efficiency expression systems and green application processes have successively applied for patent protection, and the intellectual property risks faced by my country are worrying.
At present, my country's innovative research on enzyme preparations mainly revolves around the two issues of improving the catalytic performance of enzyme preparations and high-efficiency expression systems.
According to Sun Zhoutong, increasing the potency is to improve the catalytic performance of enzymes. Through screening in nature and mining based on big data, we can find more efficient enzymes, or modify enzymes to improve their performance.
"After obtaining enzymes with high catalytic performance, they need to be produced through industrialization. Therefore, the construction of high-efficiency expression systems is also crucial." Sun Zhoutong said that a large-scale expression system with strong versatility is regarded as a core competitiveness by large international companies. Important issues that our industry needs to solve.
In recent years, with my country’s investment in innovative research, many innovative achievements have been made in the field of industrial enzyme preparations.
For example, the team of researcher Yao Bin of the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has established a complete basic research and product development technology platform for feed enzymes, which solves the bottleneck problems of feed enzyme performance, cost, intellectual property rights and sustainable research and development. It has rapidly developed into a new industry with an internationally competitive research field and significant social and economic benefits.
"Breakthroughs in enzyme preparations in certain fields have given us hope. However, China's enzyme preparation industry started late, and its R&D technology level, experience accumulation, R&D capital investment and production equipment are all insufficient, which restricts China’s enzyme preparations. Further development of the industry." Sun Zhoutong said that in the next step, China will continue to strengthen the research and development of new technologies for the important domestic enzymes, such as liquid enzyme preparations and proteases, to solve the improvement of industrial enzyme performance, low-cost production and application development. Key technical issues.
At the same time, domestic enterprises of enzyme preparations in my country also need to increase investment in research and development, strive to develop innovative technologies with independent intellectual property rights, adjust product structure, and improve product quality.
Sun Zhoutong finally emphasized that improving the overall technical level of the industry and improving international competitiveness are the focus of the future development of my country's enzyme preparation industry.
Our reporter Chen Xi