Summary: RZBC Boyuan launched a green and automatic manufacturing project with a production capacity of 200,000 t/a of citric acid. 

On 20 Sept., the Juxian County Government accepted the environmental impact (EI) report of RZBC (Boyuan) Biochemical Co., Ltd. (RZBC Boyuan)'s 200,000 t/a citric acid green and automatic manufacturing project, and posted the official website to solicit public opinions.

Project overview:

• Construction nature: Expansion
• Location: Juxian Economic Development Zone, Rizhao City, Shandong Province
• Additional site area: 365,136 m²
• Total investment: USB247.96 million (RMB1.76 billion), of which USD21.97 million (RMB156 million) for environmental protection, accounting for 8.9%
• Construction content: Based on the existing project, to expand the workshop for the crushing of raw materials and build the liquefaction workshop, the fermentation workshop, extraction workshop of crude materials, the ion-exchange workshop, the refining and packaging workshop, the environmental protection workshop, utilities and supporting facilities
• Production process: Corn the raw material will turn into saccharification liquid after undergoing the pretreatment processes including crushing, liquefaction and saccharification—through the biological fermentation of the saccharification liquid and Aspergillus Niger, the fermentation liquid will be obtained—the obtained fermentation liquid will turn into the citric acid acid-hydrolysed liquid after crude extraction processes including continuous neutralisation, affination with calcium hydrogen, acidolysis and acid extraction—the citric acid acid-hydrolysed liquid will turn into the finished product citric acid after fine extraction processes such as decolourisation, concentration (using Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) technology), crystallisation and drying
• Production capacity: 200,000 t/a of citric acid and 76,000 t/a of feed materials from citric acid fermentation
• Labour quota: Additional 360 employees
• Working system: Three 8-hour shifts, 350 working days annually
• Construction period: 24 months, (this project is expected to start construction in Oct. 2022 and be put into production in Sept. 2024)

Currently, RZBC Boyuan has two projects under construction:

• Two-phased project of 30,000 t/a citrate and upgrading of refining technology:
• Phase I with a production capacity of 21,000 t/a of citrate (20,000 t/a calcium citrate and 1,000 t/a magnesium citrate) has been constructed and passedreceived acceptance of the environmental protection facilities.
• Phase II with a production capacity of 9,000 t/a of citric acid and citrate (2,000 t/a of citric acid, 5,000 t/a calcium citrate, 1,000 t/a of potassium citrate, 1,000 t/a of sodium citrate, and 16 million bottles per year of calcium citrate tablet) is now under construction.
• Project of 1,000 t/a potassium and sodium citrates (for infant milk formula or IMF use) technology transformation: This project changes the original production scheme, but the total production capacity remains the same. It plans to produce 500 t/a of sodium citrate and 500 t/a of potassium citrate used in baby formula.