Yonon: Production of L-glufosinate on multienzyme

Date:03-29-2023

Editor：Mickey Shan

Feature : Showcase of China’s ″Specialized and Novel″ crop protection products/technologies/applications

 

▋ Special sponsor: Lansheng Biotechy 

▋ A total of 11 enterprises are introduced in this series; The Feature was first published in the latest "2023 China Pesticide Industry Watch" 

The overall industrial upgrading of Chinese manufacture industry happens to coincides with the unprecedented changes in the last 100 years. 

In this new era full of opportunities and policy support, the Chinese pesticide enterprises have worked hard to achieve constant technical breakthroughs via innovation and upgrading, as based on the experiences gained in the past decades. Some enterprises have so far made preliminary achievements, having formed an advanced and sophisticated technology and product cluster. 

In this Feature, we have selected 11 Chinese pesticide manufacturers that are characterized with professionalism, intensification, specialization and novelty, which is a presentation of Chinese pesticide enterprise’s research and development of new products, breakthroughs in technical innovation, upgrading of type of formulations and continued exploration of applications. The publication will exhibit the achievements in each individual sector, which is internationally advanced, revealing the new competitiveness of Chinese pesticide industry.

▉Series of special topics are released in succession → specially planned by AgroPages

• Lansheng Biotech：Green chemical innovation drives fine chemical production to reach a new level

• Eastlake High-Tech: Application of microreaction, continuous flow technologies to improve quality of plant growth regulators

• Qilu, industry leader of high quality spinosad

• KingAgroot – Innovative flagship integrating compound creation and biotechnical breeding

• CAC Nantong: Cyproflanilide, a created novel insecticide with unique action mechanism

• Yonon: Production of L-glufosinate on multienzyme

• Lier Chemical: 20,000-ton L-glufosinate production capacity to start running soon

• Red Sun: Diquat dichloride aims to create new burndown herbicide market trend

• Fosetyl-aluminium: Focusing on European wine grape market, Limin’s product concept upgraded

• Pilarbio: Working imaginatively on CS – an innovative cutting-edge formulation

• Chengdu New Sun: Making breakthroughs in industrialized application of plant growth regulation coronatine, first time in the world

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 Yonon: Production of L-glufosinate on multienzyme 

 

Promoting reduced use of chemical pesticides and increased efficiency are the basics of food security assurance and inevitable requirements of green agricultural development.

 

It is an important measure to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products toward ecological civilization. At present, Glufosinate has become the world’s second-largest GM crop-tolerant herbicide. For the first time, Yonon has upgraded the fermentation process for the production of L-glufosinate, which is not only a pursuit of excellent product quality and technological innovation but also a positive response to the call of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to promote the implementation of the ″chemical fertilizer and pesticide use reduction and efficiency increase″ initiative.

 

L-glufosinate exists naturally and can be produced via the metabolism of the tripeptide compound Bialaphos inside plants. Nowadays, most glufosinate on the market is of the racemate. Studies show that the herbicidal activity of L-glufosinate is nearly twice that of glufosinate. Therefore, a scale-up promotion and application of L-glufosinate would reduce the amount of use by 50%, thus reducing the impact on the environment caused during farming activities. Moreover, L-glufosinate decomposes quickly in the soil, being less toxic to human and animal. From a policy perspective, the application of L-glufosinate aligns with the national policy of reduction in chemical fertilizer and pesticide use and increase in efficiency. It also aligns with the increasingly popular green development conception. Yonon is proud of being the first company in China to be granted registration of L-glufosinate formulation products.

 

For a long time, chiral pesticide synthesis has been a hot research subject in medicinal chemistry. L-glufosinate has one chiral center, which is configured mainly in four ways:

1) Chiral auxiliary induction, which uses chiral auxiliaries to configure the chiral center through chiral induction;

2) Natural amino-acid chiral source, which is converted to cause acquisition of L-glufosinate, with the help of natural amino acids as the chiral source;

3) Asymmetric synthesis, through the catalytic asymmetric reaction of the chiral catalyst, the chiral center is configured;

4) The racemate resolution, which is done through the chiral resolution of the racemate.

However, the current chemical synthesis of L-glufosinate faces the difficulties of a lengthy process, a complex synthesis route, low yield and expensive chiral separation reagents, which is a disadvantage to mass production.

 

While no breakthroughs have been made in chemical synthesis, biocatalysis shows its potential to replace traditional chemical synthesis due to the advantages of strict stereoselectivity, mild reaction condition and high yield. With the team of Professor Wei Dongzhi, an expert in biocatalysis and biosynthesis, Yonon has conducted a dedicated research program, ″Green Biomanufacturing and Application of Chiral L-glufosinate,″ in virtue of Professor Wei Dongzhi’s 20-plus years of technical advantages of enzyme engineering and biocatalysis, coupled with Yonon’s accumulated experience in production and application of L-glufosinate. The research program concentrates on the critical technologies of green biomanufacturing of L-glufosinate. The research program has led to the innovative development of the high-activity, high-enantioselective enzyme customization and multi-enzyme self-assembly biocatalysis; the research program has created a high concentration of substrate and pure water reaction system. Through biocatalytic technology, nearly 100% of glufosinate racemates (D-Isomer and L-Isomer) are converted to L-glufosinate, which is of significant cost advantage. The technical level and quality of Yonon’s products have reached the international leading level, having formed the company’s technological innovation with independent intellectual property rights.

 

The research achievement has been industrialized in Yonon’s Shangyu Factor in Zhejiang Province, where a new production line based on biocatalysis, with an annual 5,000-ton production of L-glufosinate, has been built. In 2020, Yonon’s L-glufosinate product Jinbaisu (L-glufosinate 10% SL) was successfully launched to market, which hit a sale of over 1,800 tons in just the first year, equivalent to a reduction of discharge of 680 tons of the inactive chiral D-Isomer to farmland; in the following year, the sale exceeded 5,000 tons. The product has won a lot of honors such as China’s Most Disruptive Crop Protection Product and China’s Originality Agrochemical Product.

 

In the past three years, Yonon’s promotion team has worked closely with customers from all sales channels across the country to conduct a product launch, sample distribution, field demonstration, and technical training on scientific applications. The promotion team has also given publicity to L-glufosinate’s ″efficient, low toxic, green and environment-friendly″ herbicidal concept, as Yonon’s positive response to the country’s agricultural development policy of ″reducing the amount of use and increasing efficiency″ as well as the ″green prevention and control″ guideline. So far, Yonon’s L-glufosinate 10% SL series have been certified with the China Green Food Production Means, which are granted registrations for application to citrus orchards, vineyards, banana orchards, cauliflower fields, cowpea fields and non-arable land. Applications to more crops are in the process of registration.

 

Yonon is a high-tech enterprise that stresses on R&D and talent training, having established two technical research centers with high-level technical personnel and four production bases. Yonon has established long-term cooperation with Zhejiang University, East China University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology. In 2021-2022, Yonon filed for 18 national and international invention patents. It has spent more than RMB100 million on new product registrations. It has committed a lot of manpower and resources each year to make continuous research and development of efficient, green and safe products. In the years ahead, Yonon will continue its investment in innovation, research and development in pesticide technical, particularly in herbicides, while being prepared to constantly explore and develop insecticides, fungicides and biopesticides.

This article was initially published in AgroPages' 2023 China Pesticide Industry Watch magazine.