Successful Scale-up and Commercializaton of INVISTA's New Adiponitrile Technology

INVISTA has successfully scaled up and commercialized a new adiponitrile (ADN) technology for the hydrocyanation of butadiene using a homogeneous nickel catalyst. ADN is a critical intermediate in the production of hexamethylene diamine which is reacted with adipic acid to produce nylon-6,6. INVISTA’s new ADN technology extends INVISTA’s market leading technology in several ways: improved product yields, reduced energy consumption, lower greenhouse gas emissions, enhanced process stability and reduced capital intensity. The new technology is a culmination of more than $40 million in research and development spanning four years on two continents.

This talk will focus on the rigorous, disciplined risk-based assessment and mitigation approach that was used to enable the scale-up and commercialization of the new technology and the role of an integrated pilot plant with full recycle which demonstrated the technology in conjunction with laboratory units, process modeling and simulation, and prototypic testing of unit operations at equipment vendors and contract manufacturers.