my country’s adipic acid market demand is growing rapidly, and the cyclohexanol method is the main production process

Adipic acid, also known as fatty acid, is an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid that is slightly soluble in water and easily soluble in ethanol. It can undergo esterification reaction, salt-forming reaction, amide reaction, and polycondensation reaction. It is an important chemical product. , mainly used in medicine, agriculture, dyes, organic synthesis, lubricant manufacturing and other fields.

The preparation methods of adipic acid include cyclohexane method, butadiene method, cyclohexanol method, cyclohexene method, phenol method and biological oxidation method. At present, industrial production mainly uses cyclohexane method and cyclohexanol method. The cyclohexane method is a process used by most companies around the world to produce adipic acid. This method uses benzene as a raw material and undergoes a hydrogenation reaction to generate cyclohexane. Cyclohexane reacts with air to generate a mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone. Adipic acid is finally produced from the mixture of alcohols and ketones. The cyclohexane production technology is mature, the raw materials are single, and it has the advantages of less consumables and low energy consumption. However, the process is complex, produces a lot of waste liquid, waste gas, waste residue and other debris, and causes greater pollution.

The cyclohexanol method uses benzene as the raw material, adds a ruthenium-based catalyst and hydrogen to generate cyclohexene, cyclohexene undergoes a hydration reaction to generate cyclohexanol, and cyclohexanol and nitric acid undergo an oxidation reaction to generate adipic acid. The cyclohexanol method slightly increases the amount of benzene and greatly reduces the consumption of hydrogen and nitric acid. The water reaction and hydrogenation reaction involved in the production process are relatively mild, the reaction process is slow, the safety is higher, and the production process does not produce There is no risk of corrosion or clogging of equipment pipelines due to residues and dirt, higher operational stability, less waste liquid, waste gas, and waste residue emissions, and is more in line with current industrial energy conservation and environmental protection requirements. About 54.7% of my country’s adipic acid production capacity uses the cyclohexanol method.

According to the “China Adipic Acid Product Market Analysis Feasibility Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, adipic acid The acid industry chain includes raw materials such as benzene, hydrogen, and nitric acid in the upstream; adipic acid production in the midstream; and application scenarios such as nylon, sole solution, and PU slurry in the downstream. From the midstream of the industrial chain, my country’s adipic acid production capacity continues to grow. From 2018 to 2022, the compound growth rate of adipic acid production capacity was 3.2%; of which, the production capacity will reach 2.988 million tons in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. Huafeng Chemical, Haili Chemical, Pingmei Shenma, Hualu Hengsheng, Dafeng Haili, Shandong Haili, etc. are the main manufacturers of adipic acid in my country.

From the downstream of the industrial chain, nylon segments such as nylon-66 and polyurethane segments such as sole solution, PU slurry, TPU and other polyurethane segments are the main application fields of adipic acid in my country, accounting for more than 90% of the demand for adipic acid. Among them, PU slurry accounts for 38.4% of adipic acid demand, ranking first; shoe sole liquid accounts for 20.8%, ranking second; nylon-66 accounts for 17.5%, ranking third. Industrial analysts said that with the breakthrough of adiponitrile technology in my country, nylon-66 will usher in a period of rapid growth, which will have a great impact on our country’s adiponitrile technology. Demand for diacids is rising. At the same time, the expansion of domestic polyurethane production capacity such as TPU and PU slurry has further promoted the growth of demand for adipic acid in the downstream of the industrial chain, and the adipic acid market is booming.