21/12/2011 (China Daily) - While many entrepreneurs might worry about a possible recession next year, the threat doesn't seem to bother the 35-year-old boss of Haiqing Biotech.

Sun Shunhai just attended an opening ceremony for his new factory in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, "the first in China able to make 100,000 tons of the palm oil derivative MES yearly," according to Sun.

MES - short for a-methyl ester sulphonate - is used in a wide range of cleaning products including laundry detergent and liquid soap.

The organic material is better for the environment and human health than similar products derived from petroleum, Sun said.

The new facility makes privately held Haiqing Biotech the fourth producer of MES in the world. The others are in the United States and Japan.

Sun said production is projected to increase to 200,000 tons in 2012, the most among all MES manufacturers globally.

The company president said his confidence in the future lies in two MES patents, as well as increasing intellectual property protection.

The two core patents cover production methods and applications. Both were developed by Xie Renhua, a leading researcher in the field.

The 57-year-old Xie paid a high price for his breakthroughs - he is almost blind from excessive methanol exposure over 10 years of research.

But due to a lack of capital, the processes that cost Xie so much stayed in the lab until the inventor met Sun.

Sun said he was touched by the scientist's devotion to MES research. After his own calculations on the prospects for MES, Sun decided to invest $200 million to found Haiqing Biotech.

He first invested in $50 million in the startup, with Xie a major stakeholder and chief engineer.

Like Sun, a growing number of private Chinese entrepreneurs are investing in intellectual property as new sources of profit.

But the relationship can be tricky. Investors generally demand that patent owners make clear every detail of inventions to gauge their worth, while patentees fear their inventions could be stolen.

The paradox is partly responsible for slow industrialization of many patents, experts said.

Haiqing Biotech handled the thorny problem by making the inventor a shareholder who is also in charge of research and development.

Sun then poured in another $150 million to import a state-of-the-art production line from Italy.

Xie said he has now begun research on more advanced types of MES that will "meet far stricter medical-use standards".