Hangzhou Bioking Biochemical Engineering Co., Ltd.

Hangzhou Bioking Biochemical Engineering Co., Ltd. was founded in 2000 at Tangqi in what is now the Linping district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Registered capital is 75 million yuan and the company is a specialist producer of tartaric acid.

Its founder and chairman Zhang Jianguo industrialised the microbial route to L(+)-tartaric acid in 1997, and the company was set up to commercialise it. It shifted from making the biocatalyst to making the acid itself in 2002 and began exporting to Europe. The range now covers L(+)-tartaric acid including a superfine powder grade, D(-)-tartaric acid, DL-tartaric acid, potassium bitartrate and natural malic acid, sold into food, beverage, pharmaceutical, construction and metal treatment applications.

The company obtained zero-rate outcomes in three European Union anti-dumping investigations into Chinese tartaric acid, in 2006, 2012 and 2016. A new office building and plant were completed in 2017 along with a 25,000 tonne a year food grade tartaric acid line. Turnover passed 500 million yuan in 2022. It holds 18 invention patents and sells in around 40 countries.

Production is built to GMP design standards and uses the company's own chromatographic separation technology, with automated raw material and finished goods warehousing and automated packing; the line was listed as a Hangzhou machine substitution demonstration project in 2016. Recognitions include national high-tech enterprise status, a Zhejiang provincial enterprise research institute, designation as a specialised and new little giant enterprise by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Zhejiang hidden champion status.

A subsidiary, Shandong Bo'erna Biotechnology Co., Ltd., was formed in 2021 at Dongying in Shandong with registered capital of 80 million yuan. It is building a 30,000 tonne a year fermentation route L-malic acid line, expected to start up in the second half of 2026.