Today, the green production technology of vitamin B5 (hereinafter referred to as VB5), another vitamin family drug developed by scientists from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is leading another innovation in related global industrial technologies. In response to new problems in modern enterprise production, a new generation of scientists has developed a new green biological fermentation method to replace the chemical method with serious pollution in the industry.

Currently, the global VB5 market demand is about 20,000 tons per year. China is the largest producer, accounting for 80% of the world's production capacity. However, VB5 companies are often restricted or suspended due to high pollution. VB5 has been produced using chemical methods for more than 80 years, but it requires the use of flammable and explosive raw materials such as formaldehyde, isobutyraldehyde and acrylonitrile, and highly toxic cyanide-containing wastewater is produced during the production process.

The new fermentation method uses glucose derived from corn as raw material. The current conversion rate is more than 30% and the cost is lower than the chemical method. Compared with the chemical synthesis method, the new process reduces water consumption by 92% and energy consumption by 16%. It uses renewable resources as raw materials and has excellent product quality.

In the future, if the bacterial residue remaining from fermentation during production is made into fertilizer or culture medium raw materials similar to soybean meal and comprehensively recycled, the cost will be more advantageous and it will not cause environmental pollution.