Healtang Biotech Co., Ltd.

Healtang Biotech Co., Ltd. was set up in 2008 and produces rare and functional sugars from corn cob and plant straw. It presents itself as the ingredient arm of SQ Group and works from a biomass refinery concept in which hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose are separated from the raw material and then converted, rather than the sugars being made by chemical synthesis.

The product range covers crystalline L-arabinose, crystalline D-xylose, xylitol, D-mannose, L-fucose, maltitol, D-xylose and L-arabinose syrups, lignosulfonate and 1,2-pentanediol. L-arabinose and D-xylose are used in flavour, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, pet food and cosmetic applications; the company states that it is the only producer making xylitol from corn cob on a single site, using a proprietary process it calls SQ Technology.

Capacity was added in steps. What the company describes as the world's largest L-arabinose production site opened in 2009, a 20,000 tonne D-xylose project followed in 2014, and in 2021 the SQ Biomass project and a 15,000 tonne xylitol plant were launched, the same year SQ Group went public. It was named a national technological innovation demonstration enterprise in 2015 and included in the first group of green factories in 2017.

Manufacturing follows GMP procedures and the company is accredited to ISO 9001, ISO 22000, kosher, halal, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 and CNAS, and holds plant-based certification for its products. Its website gives a Chinese telephone number and describes it as a China-based exporter but does not state a plant address.