HMDA by Electrolytic Dimerization of Acrylonitrile

This report describes and evaluates Phillips technology for the electrolytic conversion, in an undivided cell, of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile, a precursor of hexamethylenediamine (HMD).

In addition, a novel Phillips technology for recovering products from the electrolyte is examined. Results of the evaluation are compared with the results of an updated evaluation of Monsanto's technology that was developed in the 1960s for the dimerization of acrylonitrile in a divided cell. In our comparison, we assumed that both technologies use the same processing for converting adiponitrile to HMD.

Our evaluation indicates that the IMD product value (cost+ 25%ROI) of the Phillips process is about 6% lower than that of Monsanto's divided cell process.