On March 27, the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting opened in Beijing and released 10 major scientific and technological achievements. "The Key Technology for the Biological Manufacturing of Adipic Acid" was selected.

Adipic acid is an important basic chemical raw material. Traditional chemical plants produce nylon raw material adipic acid, which generates a large amount of greenhouse gases. The team of Tan Tianwei from Beijing University of Chemical Technology obtained microbial strains that efficiently produce adipic acid precursors by optimally designing the biosynthetic pathway, with a yield of 110 g/L, providing a Chinese solution for the green transformation of the chemical industry.

According to Wang Bin, Vice Dean of the Institute of High Technology at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, nylon materials prepared from adipic acid are closely related to people's lives. They can be used to produce high-quality engineering plastics for the production of equipment in aerospace, automotive, and high-speed rail industries, as well as to make garments such as冲锋衣 and quick-drying clothes.

The chemical synthesis of adipic acid faces disadvantages such as non-renewable raw materials, high pollution, and abundant byproducts. Traditional petrochemical methods release 3 tons of greenhouse gas nitrogen dioxide per ton of adipic acid produced. In contrast, the biological production of adipic acid not only uses renewable raw materials but is also cleaner and more efficient, aiding the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry. However, current biotechnology suffers from low efficiency and limited production capacity. "By 2025, global nylon demand is expected to exceed 10 million tons, yet bio-based adipic acid has not yet achieved commercial production, representing a bottleneck technology for China."

Synthetic bio-manufacturing is a novel material production technology centered on industrial biotechnology, representing a burgeoning industry that leads the "Third Revolution in Biological Sciences." It enables cells to become "super factories," producing various specific substances on demand.

In the laboratory of the National Energy Bio-refining Research and Development Center at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, the construction of "high-efficiency microbial cell factories" is becoming a reality. Artificial intelligence technology plays the role of a "super brain," helping researchers simulate biological reaction processes and greatly improving experimental efficiency; robotic arms operate efficiently and accurately, tirelessly completing microbial inoculation on the high-throughput strain screening automation platform. The support of interdisciplinary technologies has made the experimental progress more efficient.

The team led by Tan Tianwei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, has made a significant breakthrough in the biotechnological production of adipic acid. Through a new biosynthetic pathway for adipic acid, the theoretical yield of the product has reached 87%, which is 32% higher than the existing pathway. As the new technology continues to mature, this year, it is expected to be scaled up to a pilot-scale bioreactor with a capacity of 1 ton.

Wang Bin said that the production of propylene glycol, succinic acid, and butanediol were all originally developed in the West as technological pioneers, while China followed and tracked these technologies, progressing from catching up to keeping pace. However, the adipic acid project is expected to put China's original technology ahead of the West.