【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】2666-2025: Ending 30 Years of Foreign Monopoly! Shin-Etsu’s 180,000-ton liquid methionine project is now in operation!

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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical technology and equipment sector; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Equipment】A continuously updated summary post is available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** On September 5, 2025, Xinhecheng issued a announcement stating that it has formed a joint venture with Sinopec to establish Ningbo Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Xinhecheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd., with the aim of building a plant capable of producing 180,000 tons per year of liquid methionine (in pure form). Qualified products have already been produced successfully. The liquid methionine project is scheduled to stop production for maintenance at the beginning of September, based on the results of the preliminary trial production. The maintenance period is expected to last 3–4 weeks, and the subsequent progress will be determined in light of market demands and the outcomes of the trial production, among other practical factors. On April 28, 2023, the inauguration ceremony for Ningbo Zhenhai Refining & Chemical New Hecheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. along with a mobilization meeting to launch the construction of the 180,000 tons per year liquid methionine production project were held at the site of the methionine project on Plot 2 of Sinopec’s Zhenhai facility. This project will leverage the respective strengths of Shin-Nakano and Zhenhai Refining & Chemical to achieve a powerful partnership. It represents a significant step for Shin-Nakano in strengthening its animal nutrition business and expanding its international cooperation, signaling that the company’s development will reach a new level. Ningbo Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Xinhecheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established through a 50:50 investment partnership between Sinopec Corporation and Zhejiang Xinhecheng Co., Ltd., guided by the principle of mutual benefit and common development. Its goal is to create China’s first liquid methionine production facility that possesses entirely independent intellectual property rights, as well as being the largest of its kind in the world. Methionine is the only sulfur-containing amino acid among the 24 essential amino acids in animals; it cannot be produced by the body itself and must be obtained from external sources. The huge market demand and the severe imbalance between supply and demand have motivated many companies to get involved. However, due to factors such as high barriers to production technology and a high degree of concentration in product sales, the global methionine market has long been dominated by traditional feed additive manufacturers such as Evonik, Adisseo, Novus, and Sumitomo; the key technologies in this field have remained under control of foreign companies. For such key products, can China possess independent technology? Can the environmental bottleneck of \"odors\" be resolved in the process of localization? You must do things that others want to do but are unable to! In 2005, Shin-Nakano faced the challenges head-on and began to develop a methionine project, focusing on intensive research and development efforts. Ten years of hard work led to a breakthrough in the pilot-scale production of methionine by Sinopharm in July 2014. In March 2016, a pilot plant utilizing the patented technology \"A Clean Method for the Preparation of D,L-Methionine\" developed by Shin-Etsu successfully went into operation, thereby resolving the \"odor problem\" that had plagued the domestic production of methionine for decades. In July 2017, China’s first large-scale, green, and integrated methionine production facility with fully independent intellectual property rights – Shandong Xinhucheng’s first-phase plant with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons of methionine – began operating steadily, thus making the dream of domestic production of methionine a reality. In April 2023, the 180,000 tons per year liquid methionine production project of Ningbo Zhenhai Refining & Chemical New HeCheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. commenced full-scale construction. The proprietary methionine technology not only made Shin-Nakano a key player in the global methionine industry, but also \"created a new Shin-Nakano\" thanks to the high profitability of its product market. The liquid methionine production process developed independently by Zhejiang Xinhecheng Company has broken the foreign countries’ long-term monopoly over this technology. To date, 12 invention patents have been granted for this process, and the entire methionine production technology has been rated as being at an internationally advanced level by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. It is evident that Shin-Nakamura’s process technology is quite impressive.