Wacker Biosolutions, the life sciences division of Germany’s Wacker group, has commissioned a new plant at León, Spain, producing fermentation-generated cystine. The new facility is part of a €30 million partial modernization the 800 m³ fermentation capacity it acquired at the Spanish site in late 2016.

The Munich-based company said the site upgrade is in response to increased demand from the food and pharmaceutical industries. Over the next few months, the plants are to be gradually qualified and ramped up to full capacity.

 “With our investment in the León site, we are well equipped to further strengthen our position as the global market and technology leader for fermentation-generated cystine,” said Gerhard Schmid, head of Wacker Biosolutions. “The modernized fermentation plants and the new cystine production plant enable us to reliably meet our customers’ growing demand for cysteine and cystine and to commercialize new fermentation-generated products,” he added.

Cystine, along with cysteine, the amino acid produced from it, are used to manufacture flavorings and make doughs in baked goods easier to process; they also play a role as a free-radical scavenger in cosmetics products or as an expectorant in cough medicines.

Wacker claims to be the first company to produce cystine by fermentation in a patented biotech process. Due to the entirely plant-based and inorganic raw materials, its cystine and cysteine are purely vegetarian, making them especially safe for use in food and pharmaceutical products, it said.