Blue Bay Company researchers are conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis of glucosamine drug-related substances.

A new type of deep-diving material that can withstand the strong water pressure of the 10,000-meter deep sea and support submersibles to reach any sea area in the world for scientific research operations has been put into mass production in Xiamen; high-purity glucosamine extracted from deep-sea shrimp and crab shells has broken the foreign monopoly for many years and has begun mass production in Xiamen; after 16 years and nearly 600 rounds of screening, the schizochytrium powder produced by Xiamen companies is used to feed dairy cows, so that the milk comes with DHA, known as "brain gold" as soon as it is squeezed out...

Empowered by science and technology, pursuing dreams in the deep blue. In recent years, Xiamen has focused on cultivating emerging marine industries, focusing on developing emerging marine industries such as marine high-end equipment manufacturing, marine drugs and biological products industries, and smart ocean construction. Through the promotion of municipal special funds projects, it focuses on supporting marine scientific and technological achievements transformation and industrialization demonstration projects undertaken by marine-related enterprises, and continuously promotes marine scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation. Especially since the beginning of 2024, Xiamen has used new technologies and new materials as support to deeply explore the new quality of marine productivity, and a large number of strategic emerging industries have achieved phased results.

The reporter learned from the Xiamen Ocean Development Bureau that as of the first half of 2024, the local area has cumulatively supported 219 marine industry projects with a total investment of 6.314 billion yuan and supported 101 enterprises. In accelerating the construction of the new journey of "Maritime Fujian", Xiamen is injecting strong "blue kinetic energy" to promote the high-quality and vigorous development of the marine economy.

New materials: Conquering the power of the deep sea

Ingredients, curing, machining, pasting and molding, customized delivery...In the workshop of Zhongke Hairui (Xiamen) Science and Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongke Hairui"), workers are packing the newly produced solid buoyancy materials for delivery.

It looks like an ordinary foam plastic board, but it can withstand the pressure of the deep sea of 10,000 meters - the "Struggler" manned submersible produced by China, which can carry out scientific research operations in the deepest part of the ocean, uses this new buoyancy material for about 70% of its volume.

In the Tong'an factory of Zhongke Hairui, the reporter conducted an experiment - a rectangular new material weighing 11 kilograms was put into the water, and this heavy object actually floated on the water surface.

"What supports it from sinking is a white powder called hollow glass microspheres. Each grain of powder is a micro hollow sphere, which is also the basic state of the buoyancy material." Li Huixuan, vice chairman of Zhongke Hairui, said.

It is reported that the use of buoyancy materials in submersibles can allow submersibles to float from the seabed without consuming power, increasing underwater operation time, operation items and activity radius. "Previously, domestic buoyancy materials generally had high density and poor strength, so they were not light enough and could not withstand high pressure. In the past, China had to import buoyancy materials from the United States and Switzerland to conduct deep-sea exploration, which greatly hindered the progress of deep-sea scientific research." Li Huixuan said that the research and development of hollow glass microspheres solved this key problem. "The main component of micron-sized hollow glass microspheres is borosilicate. After mixing with a resin matrix and thermally curing, the buoyancy material is made. The density is reduced from 2.0 of traditional materials to 0.9, and the pressure resistance reaches 170 MPa, which can support the requirements of deep-sea operations of 10,000 meters, and also breaks the monopoly of imported buoyancy materials from abroad."

There is still a long way to go from research and development to mass production. Relying on the strength of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, after more than 20 years of research, the team of scientists of Zhongke Hairui has overcome the technical difficulties in key links such as hollow glass microsphere reinforcement, resin composition modification, and curing stress release, and has created and mastered the world's leading independent innovation core technology-the research and industrialization of high-performance hollow glass microspheres prepared by soft chemical method.

Occupying the commanding heights of scientific research means the emergence of new quality productivity. Today, hollow glass microspheres have been successfully applied to plastics and rubber, 5G electronics, aerospace, automobiles and other fields. In August 2023, the Zhongke Hairui factory located in Tong'an District, Xiamen, with an annual output of 1,000 cubic meters, was put into production. In 2024, it is expected to provide more than 10 types of buoyancy materials with different performances to the overseas market, which also opened up a new situation for the large-scale application of domestic deep-diving buoyancy materials.

In recent years, Xiamen has continuously improved the marine engineering equipment industry chain and accelerated the layout of upstream areas of the industry chain such as marine new materials and key components. At present, the local area has 5 listed companies such as Luopute and Innoor in the field of marine high-end equipment manufacturing, as well as national high-tech enterprises such as Shuangrui Ship Coatings, Jilongde and Standalone; it has developed a number of high-tech products such as optical fiber hydrophone sensors, micro-Raman spectrometers, optical fiber amplifiers and other marine stereoscopic monitoring optical fiber sensor components, anti-fouling and anti-corrosion coatings.

New medicine: Purified marine essence

"Among the 355 million osteoarthritis patients in the world, there are 155 million in China." In April 2024, Blue Bay Glucosamine obtained the drug preparation approval registration certificate, becoming the first glucosamine sulfate drug approved since the implementation of China's New Drug Law. Lin Xiufen, chairman of Xiamen Blue Bay Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Blue Bay Company"), introduced that more than 70 countries in the world use this drug as a first-line clinical treatment for primary and secondary osteoarthritis. The approval of this new drug has a far-reaching impact on the field of osteoarthritis treatment in China.

As the pioneer of China's high-purity glucosamine sulfate industry, Blue Bay's laboratory monthly output was less than 1 kilogram 20 years ago. Today, the company has an annual production capacity of 100 tons and an annual output value of 1 billion yuan, and has built the world's only high-purity glucosamine sulfate production base.

It is understood that the high-purity glucosamine produced by Blue Bay Company has a purity of more than 99%, does not contain potassium, sodium, and chloride ions, and has no contraindications for use. It is a national standard sample of high-purity glucosamine sulfate and has leading quality worldwide. After obtaining approval to develop and produce glucosamine pharmaceutical raw materials and preparations, the drugs produced by Xiamen companies will be comparable to the international first-line glucosamine drugs, with higher technical indicators than international standards and better product quality, which can effectively replace imports.

Developing towards the sea, with the help of boosters such as carrier platforms provided by the local government, exploring new marine productivity, Huisheng Biology, which is rooted in the local area, is also a typical representative of Xiamen's marine-related enterprises to "new" development.

In January 2024, the first phase of Huisheng Biological's new biological fermentation industrial park with a total construction area of 50,000 square meters was put into production. The project can produce 3,000 tons of algae powder and 6,000 tons of algae oil annually, and the products will be sold all over the world.

DHA is an important fatty acid that constitutes the brain and retina and is considered to be essential for the development of infant intelligence and vision. "Without passing through the food chain, DHA algae oil extracted from marine microalgae is relatively safer." Zhong Huichang, chief engineer of Huisheng Biology, said, "The Schizochytrium powder produced by the company is made from Schizochytrium species rich in DHA in the ocean. After being ingested by dairy cows, it can naturally absorb and metabolize DHA in the body and convert it into milk fat. Milk comes with DHA as soon as it is squeezed out."

To achieve this result, the Huisheng Biology R&D team plunged into the laboratory. After successfully screening the "HS01" Schizochytrium species mother strain in 2008, they continued to screen the species through the patented microbial directed fermentation technology. After 16 years and nearly 600 rounds of screening, they finally screened out algae species with higher purity and stability to produce safer and purer Schizochytrium powder and DHA algae oil.

With this industry-first technology, Huisheng Bio has become China's first DHA algae oil industrialization enterprise to obtain international authoritative certifications such as EU organic certification, US organic certification, US FDA GRAS certification and EU NOVELFOOD certification. It is also the only designated supplier of DHA feed for well-known brands such as Yili, Mengniu and Guangming.

Relying on rich marine biological resources, Xiamen has produced a large number of marine biological products such as various forms of microalgae DHA, vanillin, alginate dressings, Bdellovibrio, high-purity glucosamine, coenzyme Q10, etc. in recent years, and backbone marine biological enterprises such as Jindawei, Blue Bay, Horseshoe Crab Reagent, and Huisheng have emerged.

"To form a new quality of marine productivity, we must accelerate the transformation of scientific research advantages into comparative advantages of high-quality development." A relevant person in charge of the Xiamen Ocean Development Bureau said that since the beginning of this year, Xiamen has made new breakthroughs in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of many marine biological products. "Key technology innovation and industrial application of high-value processing of seaweed" and "Discovery of new antimicrobial peptides of marine animals and their product creation and application" have successively won the first prize of Fujian Science and Technology Progress and Technological Invention.

New equipment: Open the "eye in the sky" for navigation

On the vast ocean, there is always a pair of smart "eyes" that always pay attention to the dynamics of ships coming and going, and send data back to the ground base station in time. This is the "hidden champion" in the industry-the Beidou navigation system for ships developed by Xinnuo Beidou Hangke Information Technology (Xiamen) Co., Ltd.

As one of the largest manufacturers of ship communication and navigation electronic equipment in China, the ESC electronic chart machine independently developed by Xinnuo Beidou has a market share of up to 80% in China. "For more than 20 years, we have focused on the smart ocean track and strive to gradually get rid of our dependence on imported equipment and technology. Not long ago, we reached a cooperation with Huawei to accelerate the all-round localization process in the field of ship intelligent cockpit equipment based on Beidou technology and Hongmeng ecology." Huang Yuan, deputy general manager of the company, introduced.

Faced with challenges, Xinnuo Beidou is fully prepared. In April 2024, the company developed a new generation of multi-functional ship driving intelligent equipment MIBT, which highly integrates Beidou high-precision positioning, electronic chart system, automatic identification system and other functions. It is well received by the industry and has received continuous orders after listing. Recently, MIBT obtained the China Classification Society Type Approval Certificate (CCS certification), which can be widely used in smart ocean, smart port, smart ship and other fields.

By the end of 2024, the new Xinnuo Beidou Park will be put into production, and it is expected to produce 300,000 sets of ship intelligent cockpit communication and navigation equipment annually, with a surge in production capacity several times. "We will further promote the export of domestic equipment, increase the application rate of Beidou in ship satellite communication equipment, and polish Beidou's "business card" in the countries participating in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and even in the larger international market." Huang Yuan said. (Chen Tingwen/Photo)