Invista unveils new production technology for key nylon intermediate

Some $40 million in R&D and four years later, Invista says it has a new production technology for producing adiponitrile (ADN), a key ingredient for nylon 6,6 polymers and fibers. Invista says the benefits of the new ADN technology include improved product yields, reduced energy consumption, lower CO2 emissions, enhanced process stability and reduced capital intensity, compared to existing technologies. In addition, the company says the new process virtually eliminates benzene from the production process.

Invista

Invista, which produces nylon intermediates and polymers, has been operating this new technology for more than two years at a pilot-scale facility at its research and development center in Orange, TX. It is now pursuing deployment plans with the option of installing the new technology at its existing facilities in Orange and Victoria, TX, in addition to a plant Invista is constructing in China.

Bill Greenfield, executive vice president of Invista's nylon intermediates business, said in a release that the Wichita, KS headquartered Koch Industries company is ready to deploy the new technology at a commercial scale with a formal announcement in a few weeks regarding the details on location and timing. Invista said its proprietary, butadiene-based adiponitrile (ADN) production technologies are reportedly employed in more than 75% of the world's existing ADN capacity.

Invista describes its Dytek brand of ADN as a high-purity, high-boiling aliphatic dinitrile liquid, and a key intermediate for hexamethylenediamine, which the company uses to produce nylon 6,6. The company says its ADN manufacturing technology is proprietary and butadiene-based.