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Process uses adiponitrile and will be launched in Chinese JV with DuPont.
AS A FORERUNNER TO building a worldscale, joint-venture plant with E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in Hainan, China, BASF Corporation has begun producing caprolactam from adiponitrile at a demonstration plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The technology is aimed at improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of making caprolactam, the feedstock for nylon 6.
BASF currently produces caprolactam at Freeport, Tex., using cyclohexane as its feedstock. "Our new route to caprolactam is very competitive because it has lower raw material costs, lower investment, and no ammonium sulfate or other by-products," says Werner Bugert, executive vice-president of BASF Corporation and president of the company's worldwide fiber products division.
The new process is being tested in a plant...