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Advances in Adiponitrile (ADN) and Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) Processes

Report 31C

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Published May 2014

Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and adiponitrile (ADN) are intermediate monomers used in the production of nylon 66, which is a copolymer of HMDA and adipic acid (ADA). Nylon 66 was historically used primarily to form carpet fibers used in high quality rugs for residential applications and in fibers for clothing. More recently, nylon 66 has been used as an engineering resin in demanding high-temperature automotive 'under the hood' applications such as linings for hydraulic brake lines, cable and wire insulation, and molded parts such as radiator housings.

Nylon 66 competes in most end-use applications with nylon 6, which is produced as a homopolymer of caprolactam. Nylon 66 has better thermal properties than nylon 6 in most end-use applications, but is perceived to be more expensive to produce than nylon 6. Adiponitrile is an intermediate product made in the integrated HMDA process, which is converted to HMDA via hydrogenation.

The three commercial manufacturing routes to HMDA are from butadiene via hydrocyanation (Invista/DuPont), from acrylonitrile via electrohydrodimerization (Ascend/Monsanto), and from adipic acid via ammoniation. All routes produce adiponitrile as an intermediate product, which is then hydrogenated to produce HMDA.

Invista, a company owned by Koch Industries that absorbed the nylon 66 business that Koch purchased from DuPont, announced new process technology in 2012 for producing HMDA and ADN, and also announced that these new technologies will be commercialized in a grassroots complex planned for China. The technologies have been commercialized at Invista's existing plants in Texas (Orange and Victoria) via revamp. The new HMDA plant will be located in Shanghai. It will have an initial production capacity of 215 kty, and it is scheduled for commercial start-up in 2015. Invista claims the new process will produce substantially less benzene by-products than its conventional butadiene-based HMDA process, while being 30% more energy efficient.

Ascend Performance Products, which was formed from the original Monsanto nylon 66 business, produces adiponitrile via the electrodimerization of acrylonitrile. Its conventional HDMA process has seen modest technology improvements as documented in the patent literature.

Rennovia (Menlo Park, California, USA) announced in 2013 a new bio-based route to HMDA. If combined with Rennovia's existing bio-based route to adipic acid, nylon 66 can then be produced from 100% bio-based materials.

In this report we present our understanding of the current technology for producing adipontirle and hexamethylenediamine used by Invista and Ascend, as well as the bio-based process being developed by Rennovia. This effort updates the previous Chemical PEP series covering HMDA and ADN in reports 31, 31A, and 31B.

We will examine the patent and trade literature and present our understanding of the process technology commercially employed and the corresponding production economics for making HMDA and adiponitrile.

Other PEP Related Reports:

  • Hexamethylenediamene 31
  • Hexamethylenediamine 31A
  • Hexamethylenediamine 31B
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Table of Contents

Section Page Number

Introduction 1-1
What are adiponitrile and hexamethylenediamine? 1-1
Molecular structure 1-2
Hydrogenation of adiponitrile to form HMDA1-2
Reaction to form nylon 66 1-2
Commercial uses for ADN and HMDA1-3
Commercial uses for nylon 66 1-3
Nylon 66 integrated product chain diagram1-4
Physical properties of ADN and HMDA 1-5
Process safety 1-8
Adiponitrile 1-9
Hexamethylenediamine 1-9
Hydrogen 1-9
Butadiene 1-10
Acrylonitrile 1-10
Nylon market overview 1-10
ADN and HMDA production overview1-11
ADN and HMDA product grades and specifications 1-12
Adiponitrile 1-12
Hexamethylenediamine 1-13
Prior PEP reports on HMDA and ADN 1-13
Summary 2-1
Process safety 2-4
Supply and demand 2-5
Nylon demand 2-5
HMDA demand 2-5
ADN demand 2-6
Ascend/Monsanto Electro-dimerization of Acrylonitrile to HMDA2-10
Rennovia HMDA process 2-11
ADN and HMDA industry status 3-1
Uses of ADN and HMDA 3-1
Uses of nylon 66 3-2
Inter-material substitution between nylon 66 and nylon 63-2
Polymer inter-material substitution3-3
Other forms of polyamide 3-5
Market desire for bio-based nylon 3-5
Adiponitrile demand 3-6
Hexamethylenediamine demand 3-7
ADN and HMDA producers 3-8
Regional distribution of capacity 3-10
ADN and HMDA announced changes in capacity3-11
Demand growth for ADN and HMDA3-12
Nylon 66 product pricing 3-13
Fundamental energy and feedstock costs 3-13
Butadiene pricing outlook 3-14
Acrylonitrile pricing outlook 3-15
Invista legal proceedings 3-17
Chemistry and process technology 4-1
Chemical structure of adiponitrile and hexamethylenediamine 4-1
Chemical reaction for producing nylon 66 4-1
Nylon 66 process summary 4-1
Nylon 66 historical background 4-2
Technology basis for nylon 66 competing with nylon 6 4-3
Chemical reactions for hydrogenating ADN to HMDA4-4
Hydrogen cyanide production 4-4
Hydrogen cyanide properties 4-4
HCN safety considerations 4-5
Commercial HCN uses 4-6
Commercial HCN production technologies4-6
Process description 4-7
Adiponitrile from butadiene via DuPont/Invista hydrocyanation 4-8
Background 4-8
Chemistry 4-8
Block flow diagram 4-10
Adiponitrile from acrylonitrile by electrodimerization 4-12
Chemistry 4-12
Process technology 4-12
HMDA from acrylonitrile via electrohydrodimerization in solution 4-12
HMDA from acrylonitrile via electrohydrodimerization in emulsion 4-14
HMDA from acrylonitrile via electrohydrodimerization in an undivided cell 4-16
Adiponitrile from adipic acid 4-18
Chemistry 4-18
Process technology 4-18
HMDA from biomass via Rennovia processing4-19
Chemistry 4-20
Process technology 4-21
Other HMDA production processes 4-21
HMDA from butadiene via direct chlorination4-21
HMDA from adipic acid and hydroxycaproic acid4-23
Hexamethylenediamine and caprolactam from adiponitrile by partial hydrogenation and cyclization of aminocapronitrile 4-23
Process Design Basis 5-1
Process safety 5-1
Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) 5-1
Adiponitrile (ADN) 5-2
Acrylonitrile 5-2
Hydrogen 5-3
Butadiene 5-3
Hydrogen cyanide 5-3
Ammonia (NH3) 5-4
Business objectives 5-4
Scope of project 5-5
Design philosophy 5-6
Design priorities 5-6
Process safety 5-7
Operating reliability 5-7
Environmental emission conformance5-7
Hazardous waste incineration 5-9
Flexibility for economic optimization 5-9
Ease of operations and maintenance5-9
Scheduled plant turnarounds 5-10
Reciprocating machinery drivers 5-10
Maximum return on investment 5-10
Buildings 5-11
Security and vulnerability analysis5-11
Production design criteria 5-12
Plant location factor 5-12
PEP capital cost factor 5-13
Regulatory environment and EH&S standards 5-14
Construction methodology 5-14
Off-site facilities 5-15
Black start capability 5-15
Process control philosophy 5-16
Project to provide machine condition monitoring instrumentation 5-16
Materials of construction 5-16
Engineering and design standards 5-17
Site specific design conditions 5-17
Capital and operating cost bases 5-18
Capital investment 5-18
Project construction timing 5-19
Available utilities 5-19
Production cost factors 5-20
Feedstock, product, and energy pricing5-20
Effect of operating level on production costs 5-21
Project design capacity 5-22
Feedstock and product specifications5-22
Hexamethylenediamine 5-22
Adiponitrile 5-23
Butadiene 5-23
Acrylonitrile 5-23
HMDA and ADN via Invista butadiene processing6-1
Butadiene hydrocyanation technology background 6-1
Invista the company 6-1
Invista next-generation adiponitrile technology 6-2
Intended commercialization of Invista ADN technology6-2
Hydrogen cyanide production 6-3
Andrussow HCN process chemistry6-4
Andrussow process design 6-5
Andrussow HCN reactor design 6-5
Reaction gas purification 6-8
Development status of Invista ADN process technology6-9
Invista's HMDA and ADN patent position6-10
Major characteristics of Invista butadiene-based patents and applications6-11
Hydrocyanation catalyst composed of Group VIII metal and phosphonite ligand 6-13
Butadiene feed pretreatment 6-15
Process configuration of Invista hydrocyanation of butadiene 6-16
Hydrocyanation of butadiene to form mononitriles (first hydrocyanation reaction) 6-18
Distillation of reactor products from butadiene hydrocyanation reaction 6-20
Isomer properties 6-22
Isomerization of 2M3BN to 3PN 6-23
Distillation of reactor products from isomerization reactor6-24
Hydrocyanation of 3PN to produce crude ADN6-25
Liquid:liquid extraction of hydrocyanation reactor product6-27
Crude adiponitrile product purification by distillation 6-27
Adiponitrile hydrogenation to HMDA6-28
Historical development 6-28
S&P Global Design basis for ADN hydrogenation to HMDA6-29
Hydrocyanation catalyst purification and recycle system6-30
Contaminant removal from homogeneous catalyst by liquid-liquid extraction6-30
Contaminated ADN polar solvent recovery scheme6-31
Crude HMDA purification by distillation versus crystallization 6-32
Process description 6-33
Plant sections 6-33
Section 100—hydrogen cyanide (HCN) production6-33
Section 200—butadiene hydrocyanation to 3PN6-35
Section 300—3PN hydrocyanation to ADN6-36
Section 400—ADN hydrogenation to HMDA6-37
Section 500—catalyst purification and recycle6-38
Stream-by-stream material balance 6-39
Equipment list with duty specifications 6-52
Itemized capital cost 6-59
Total fixed capital cost estimate 6-68
Production cost estimate 6-69
Economic analysis 6-74
Monsanto/Ascend process for making HMDA from acrylonitrile7-1
Ascend Performance Materials 7-1
Ascend's capital plans 7-2
Monsanto/Ascend chemistry 7-2
Electrochemical cell arrangement 7-4
Process design 7-5
Adiponitrile from acrylonitrile via electrohydrodimerization in an undivided cell7-5
Feedstock composition 7-6
Process configuration 7-6
Process description/PFDs 7-7
Section 100—electrodimerization and aqueous phase treatment 7-8
Section 200—adiponitrile purification 7-9
Section 400—ADN hydrogenation to HMDA 7-10
Stream-by-stream material balance 7-11
Equipment list with duty specifications 7-18
Itemized capital cost estimate 7-23
Total fixed capital cost estimate 7-29
Production cost estimate 7-30
Economic analysis 7-34
Bio-based HMDA via Rennovia process technology8-1
Introduction 8-1
Other bio nylon developers 8-1
Rennovia feedstock 8-2
Rennovia intellectual property 8-4
Conversion of HFCS-90 to HMF 8-5
US Patent 6743928 (International Furan Technology) 8-8
US Patent 6518440 (Lightner) 8-10
World Patent 2011 / 149339 (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) 8-12
Commercially available 5-HMF 8-12
S&P Global HMF production design approach 8-13
Hydrogenation of HMF to 1,2,6-Hexanetriol and 1,6-Hexanediol 8-18
Ammoniation of 1,6-hexanediol to HMDA 8-24
Rennovia input/output and block flow diagrams8-26
Process description 8-27
Section 100 – Hydroxymethylfurfural from HFCS by dehydration 8-28
Section 200 – Hydrogenation of HMF to 1,2,6-Hexanetriol 8-30
Section 300 – Hydrogenation of 1,2,6-Hexanetriol to 1,6-Hexanediol 8-31
Section 400 – Ammoniation of 1,6-Hexanediol to HMDA8-32
Section 500 – HMDA Purification 8-35
Stream by stream material balance 8-36
Equipment List 8-52
Itemized capital cost estimate 8-58
Total fixed capital cost estimate 8-66
HMDA production cost 8-68
Variable raw material production cost8-68
Variable utility production cost 8-69
Economic analysis 8-72
Appendix A: Patent summary table A-1
Appendix B: References B-1
Appendix C: Invista block flow diagram C-1
Appendix D: Process flow diagramsD-1

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