On December 19, reporters learned from the Shizuishan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology that the pilot‑scale platform for bio‑based long‑chain carbon materials operated by Ningxia Zhongke Bio‑New Materials Co., Ltd. has recently been approved as a three‑star national-level demonstration platform for biomanufacturing pilot‑scale capabilities, jointly launched by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission. To date, the platform has provided services to seven biomanufacturing enterprises, successfully facilitating the scale‑up of nine laboratory‑developed technologies; among these, three have already entered industrial production.

Ningxia Zhongke Bio‑New Materials Co., Ltd., a national high‑tech enterprise, specializes in lauric acid, a product designated as a strategic emerging industry by the state. Leveraging its proprietary technological expertise, the company has established an industry‑wide public service platform tailored to the Northwest region, focusing on addressing common technical challenges across the bio‑manufacturing value chain. By conducting targeted research and promoting the sharing of研究成果, it provides robust support for the development of Ningxia’s synthetic biology sector.

The platform has established large-scale validation capabilities spanning the entire process—from fermentation and separation to purification and analysis—equipped with fully automated fermenters ranging from 5 liters to 50 cubic meters. Coupled with complementary downstream processing units such as membrane separation, crystallization, and drying, it has created a complete pilot‑scale production line, enabling seamless scale‑up and validation from laboratory‑scale “gram‑level” samples to industrial‑scale “ton‑level” products. This effectively bridges the gap between R&D and mass production, offering a practical and viable solution to the longstanding challenge of process scale‑up in the biomanufacturing sector.

“This pilot‑scale platform has become a premier hub for attracting top talent in the field of synthetic biology. To date, it has recruited and trained a total of 42 core personnel, including 24 who were developed in‑house, and has flexibly brought in 11 doctoral and master’s degree holders from leading universities and research institutions such as Tianjin University, Shandong University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, thereby establishing a robust R&D talent pipeline,” said Li Zhongfu, Assistant General Manager of Ningxia CAS Bio‑New Materials Co., Ltd. He added that, by combining talent recruitment with independent innovation, the platform has achieved several significant breakthroughs, undertaken numerous research projects—including key regional R&D programs—and filed a cumulative total of 14 patent applications, with a steady stream of innovative results.

With the support of the Shizuishan Municipal Government, in 2024, the pilot-scale platform for bio-based long-chain carbon materials at Zhongke Bio successfully brought in the industrialization technology team from Hunan Xinhexin Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Within three months, they refined and optimized key technologies such as aqueous-phase purification, more than doubling the overall production capacity.

“The core value of the pilot‑scale platform lies not only in its capacity to validate technologies at the ten‑thousand‑ton scale, but also in the innovative service ecosystem it fosters as an open, shared industrial ‘incubator’ and ‘connector,’” explained Li Zhongfu. He added that the platform integrates R&D centers, testing facilities, and pilot production lines, aiming to seamlessly bridge the entire value chain—from laboratory breakthroughs to industrial implementation—while providing enterprises both within and outside the region with one‑stop, systematic engineering development and support services.

According to the introduction, to precisely address the pain points at each stage of biomanufacturing, this pilot‑scale platform offers three flexible, differentiated collaboration models: companies can bring their own equipment for “embedded” R&D; they can independently utilize the platform’s production lines for validation; or they can entrust the platform with full responsibility for conducting pilot‑scale trials. Complementing these options is a robust intellectual‑property protection framework: the platform features four independent, 10,000‑class clean‑room strain‑handling zones, coupled with contractual safeguards and physical isolation, thereby establishing a secure barrier that gives partners peace of mind and fostering a pilot‑scale hub that enables an industrial synergy model—“R&D nationwide, pilot‑scale translation in Ningxia.”

The head of Zhongke Bio’s new materials division stated that next year, the company will establish a food-grade laboratory and a digital 10‑ton fermentation‑scale pilot system, expanding the platform’s scope from “bio‑based long‑chain carbon materials” to broader areas such as synthetic biology‑based food, pharmaceuticals, and chemical feedstocks. By implementing a series of measures—including co‑establishing joint laboratories with research institutes, building a digital management platform, and providing targeted training for industry talent—the platform will further strengthen its capabilities in industrializing cutting‑edge technologies, incubating scientific成果, and cultivating skilled personnel.

Please click the link to view the fermentation pilot-scale VR of Ningxia Zhongke Bio‑New Materials Co., Ltd.:

https://www.720yun.com/t/43aku9rhrih

Source: Ningxia Daily Client