Hayashibara Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Shimoishii, Kita-ku, Okayama; President: Naoki Yasuba), a NAGASE Group company, announced today that the construction of the new facility, which started on February 2019 to produce Pullulan and various enzymes at Okayama Plant II (Imabo, Kita-ku, Okayama), was completed on July 3, 2020.
The new P Facility at Okayama Plant II was constructed as the current P Facility built in 1976 had started to age. The new P Facility will play an essential role in producing Pullulan and enzymes.
Pullulan is a tasteless and odorless white polysaccharide powder, which is fermented by black yeast (a strain of filamentous fungus) using starch syrup as a raw material. It is easily soluble in water and highly stable. Its adhesiveness, thickening, film-forming, formability, and other properties are used in a wide range of applications such as food adhesives, thickeners, quality improvement, and capsule manufacture. Enzymes are proteins that are produced by microorganisms and are used in our plants to produce various kinds of carbohydrates from starch.
We have improved the new P Facility by introducing environmentally-friendly equipment that reduces the amount of waste, initiating labor savings in an automated warehouse, and streamlining and improving the manufacturing process flow. The new P Facility will increase the production capacity by approximately 20% compared to the current P Facility and accommodate future increases in demand from the overseas market, as well as provide a stable supply of products. The new facility will incorporate our many years of Pullulan and enzyme manufacturing know-how plus the latest manufacturing equipment and energy-saving equipment. It will further strengthen the competitiveness of our products.
The production equipment is currently being adjusted through the trial operation, and full-scale operations will commence this fall after the test production.
*Added on July 15, 2020...The following corrections have been made to make it more accurate.
yeast → black yeast (a strain of filamentous fungus)
[Overview of the new P Facility at Okayama Plant II]
Address | 578 Imabo, Kita-ku, Okayama Site area: approximately 22,000 m2 |
|---|---|
Building overview | 6 floors, steel-frame construction |
Construction period | February 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 |
Construction company | Hitachi Plant Services Co., Ltd. |
Total investment | Approximately 7.5 billion yen |
