2025 Bio-Manufacturing Industry Analysis

This article will systematically review the bio-manufacturing industry’s key products, current industry status, regional development, investment and financing landscape and trends, and future market outlook, for reference. I. Main Products of Bio-Manufacturing The main products of bio-manufacturing include bio-based consumer goods raw materials and bio-based chemical materials. In terms of physical form, bio-based materials encompass fundamental bio-based chemicals—such as bio-alcohols, organic acids, alkanes, and glyco-engineered products—derived from biomass or produced via biological synthesis, bioprocessing, or biorefining. They also include bio-based polymers, bio-plastics, bio-based chemical fibers, bio-rubber, bio-coatings, bio-based material additives, bio-composites, and their finished products (Table 1). Currently commercialized and under-development bio-based chemicals include the following: By broad product category, China has achieved full industrial chain deployment across the upstream (bio-based feedstocks), midstream (bio-based monomers), and downstream (bio-based material products and applications) segments of the bio-based materials sector (Figure 6). In the field of bio-based products, globally competitive enterprises have emerged in areas such as polylactic acid (PLA), succinic acid, and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) (Table 2). II. Current Industry Status In 2024, China’s total bio-manufacturing industry scale reached RMB 1.5 trillion. The medical and health sector led with a scale of RMB 110 billion, growing at 2.17%. The energy and environmental protection sector reached RMB 13 billion, with growth exceeding 9.17%. The agriculture & food and chemical & materials sectors stood at RMB 15 billion and RMB 7 billion respectively, both growing steadily at over 4.53% and 5.20%. The technology and platform segment totaled RMB 5 billion, though its growth rate remains unspecified. Overall, China’s bio-manufacturing industry demonstrates robust growth potential across multiple domains. Regarding enterprise distribution, scholars classify synthetic biology companies by service focus into three types: tool-oriented, platform-oriented, and application-oriented. Under this classification, China’s current enterprise landscape exhibits a “large-at-both-ends, small-in-the-middle” structure (Table 5). In recent years, through concerted efforts by numerous enterprises, China has made significant progress in market competitiveness for products including amino acids, organic acids and alcohols, bio-resins, bio-rubber, biodiesel, and bio-jet fuel. (A) Amino Acid Sector China is the world’s largest amino acid producer: annual glutamic acid output exceeds 3 million tons; lysine output reaches ~2.3 million tons; threonine output stands at ~1 million tons. Chinese amino acid products hold prominent positions in global markets—threonine exports account for 77% of domestic production; lysine exports represent nearly 40%; and glutamic acid exports exceed 30%. Moreover, Chinese enterprises have constructed high-yield L-alanine engineered strains and independently developed a world-leading anaerobic fermentation process for L-alanine, achieving a global market share of up to 70%. (B) Organic Acids and Alcohols Sector China is the world’s largest producer of citric acid and itaconic acid: citric acid output approaches 70% of global production, with export share exceeding 80%. Itaconic acid annual capacity stands at approximately 100,000 tons—ranking China first globally. Meanwhile, China is the world’s second-largest lactic acid consumer and the largest lactic acid exporter, accounting for roughly 50% of global lactic acid production capacity.

Trillion-Yuan Market Competition: How Does Bio-Manufacturing Technology Empower Bio-Based Materials to Achieve Leapfrog Development?

In the third decade of the 21st century, the demand for sustainable human development increasingly clashes with mounting resource and environmental constraints. The widespread use of petroleum-based materials has triggered problems including non-biodegradable plastic pollution and surging carbon emissions—yet the rise of bio-manufacturing offers a viable solution to this dilemma. Leveraging microbes as ‘cell factories’ and employing technologies such as synthetic biology and gene editing, bio-manufacturing converts biomass resources into high-performance polymeric materials. This not only facilitates a transition from a ‘black-gold economy’ to a ‘green-gold economy’, but also demonstrates revolutionary potential in material performance, environmental compatibility, and energy efficiency during production. Globally, dual impetus from policy and market forces is accelerating the industrialization of bio-manufacturing. The European Union’s ‘Plastics Strategy for a Circular Economy’ explicitly mandates that all plastic packaging be recyclable or reusable by 2030. Meanwhile, the U.S. ‘National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative’ allocates USD 2 billion to support research and development of bio-based materials. In China, bio-based materials are designated as a strategic emerging industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the ‘challenge-based project selection’ mechanism is being deployed to advance domestic R&D and localization of related materials. Bio-based materials—designed to replace conventional petroleum-based plastics—are the primary battleground of bio-manufacturing and have become an industry hotspot attracting widespread attention from practitioners. Notably, major chemical enterprises—including BASF, Covestro, INEOS, Wanhua Chemical, Toray Industries (Japan), Huafeng Chemical, Tongkun Group, SABIC (Saudi Arabia), and LG Chem—have all launched strategic investments in bio-based materials, advancing R&D and production to continuously reduce product carbon footprints. I. What Are Bio-Based Materials? Bio-based materials refer to materials derived from renewable biomass resources—or produced via bio-manufacturing—including bio-alcohols, organic acids, alkanes, and glyco-engineered products obtained from biomass or through biological synthesis, bioprocessing, or biorefining. They also encompass bio-based polymers and plastics, bio-based chemical fibers, bio-rubber, bio-coatings, bio-based material additives, bio-composites, and various finished products manufactured from these bio-based materials. Bio-based materials differ conceptually from biodegradable materials and biomaterials. Currently, common bio-based materials are produced by converting renewable biomass—such as grains, legumes, crop straws, and bamboo/wood flour—into bio-macromolecular materials or monomers via biological transformation; these monomers are then polymerized into environmentally friendly chemical products and green energy sources—e.g., biogas, fuel ethanol, biodiesel, and bio-plastics. Additionally, bio-based materials can be generated using designed or engineered biological systems via bio-manufacturing or biosynthesis methods. With broad sourcing options, flexible production pathways, diverse functionalities, and wide-ranging application scenarios, bio-based materials are currently transitioning from laboratory R&D to industrial-scale production and large-scale deployment—and are poised to gradually substitute certain fossil-based materials in the future. II. How Are Bio-Based Materials Identified? Classification Bio-based Content Testing and Certification Labels Feature Bio-based products contain carbon-14 (14C); petroleum-based products contain no 14C. Standards U.S./European standards: ASTM D6866, ISO 16620, EN 16640

Verbio starts up €100 million bio-based chemicals plant in Germany

2 days ago

Verbio commissioned a €100 million German plant to produce 60,000 metric tons/year of bio-based chemicals from rapeseed methyl ester. It marks the world's first large-scale industrial deployment of ethenolysis technology for plastics and personal care applications.

chemweek

2026-10-09

Verbio starts up €100 million bio-based chemicals plant in Germany

Verbio starts up €100 million bio-based chemicals plant in Germany

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