Evonik establishes new enzymatic process for serine

• Evonik Industries has developed a new process for the enzymatic synthesis of the amino acid D-serine, L-serine und DL-serine
• Production capacities at the Nanning site (China) have been increased
• Full backward integration offers customers the highest level of supply security and product quality

Essen. 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.
"By controlling the entire supply chain, we areclearly a highly reliable partner for our customers—both with regard to supply security and product quality."

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.

Evonik offers serine in all quality grades: from technical quality for chiral synthesis to GMP-quality for pharmaceutical applications.