Evonik invests €350 million in L-lysine

Investments include construction of new L-lysine plants in Brazil and Russia capable of producing nearly 200,000 metric tonnes each year as well as a recently finished production expansion to 280,000 tonnes per year at its Blair site in North America.

The nexus of biotech research at Evonik is the company’s Halle-Künsebeck site in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Now celebrating its 30^th anniversary, the site is home to experts who are continuing to develop amino acids for modern animal nutrition, as well as biotech methods for other Evonik business units.

A small research group called Biotechnology was established in Halle-Künsebeck in 1982 with the aim of producing L-lysine via fermentation.

Today, biotech activities at this Evonik site (part of the Health & Nutrition Business Unit) include, among others, developing and optimising biotech production methods for the following amino acids used in animal nutrition: Biolys (a source of L-lysine), ThreAmino (L-threonine) and TrypAmino (L-tryptophan).

The biotech team at the Halle-Künsebeck site has nearly doubled over the past two years to roughly 100 employees.