American Cyanamid

The heat of hydration is approximately —70 kj /mol (—17 kcal/mol). This process usually produces no waste streams, but if the acrylonitrile feed contains other nitrile impurities, they will be converted to the corresponding amides. Another reaction that is prone to take place is the hydrolysis of acrylamide to acryhc acid and ammonia. However, this impurity can usually be kept at very low concentrations. American Cyanamid uses a similar process ia both the United States and Europe, which provides for their own needs and for sales to the merchant market. 

Mitsui Toatsu Chemical, Inc. disclosed a similar process usiag Raney copper (74) shortiy after the discovery at Dow, and BASF came out with a variation of the copper catalyst ia 1974 (75). Siace 1971 several hundred patents have shown modifications and improvements to this technology, both homogeneous and heterogeneous, and reviews of these processes have been pubHshed (76). Nalco Chemical Company has patented a process based essentially on Raney copper catalyst (77) ia both slurry and fixed-bed reactors and produces acrylamide monomer mainly for internal uses. Other producers ia Europe, besides Dow and American Cyanamid, iaclude AUied CoUoids and Stockhausen, who are beheved to use processes similar to the Raney copper technology of Mitsui Toatsu, and all have captive uses. Acrylamide is also produced ia large quantities ia Japan. Mitsui Toatsu and Mitsubishi are the largest producers, and both are beheved to use Raney copper catalysts ia a fixed bed reactor and to sell iato the merchant market. 

The largest production of acrylamide is in Japan the United States and Europe also have large production faciUties. Some production is carried out in the Eastern Bloc countries, but details concerning quantities or processes are difficult to obtain. The principal producers in North America are The Dow Chemical Company, American Cyanamid Company, and Nalco Chemical Company (internal use) Dow sells only aqueous product and American Cyanamid sells both Hquid and sohd monomer. In Europe, Chemische Eabrik Stockhausen Cie, Ahied CoUoids, The Dow Chemical Company, and Cyanamid BV are producers Dow and American Cyanamid are the only suppHers to the merchant market, and crystalline monomer is available from American Cyanamid. Eor Japan, producers are Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, Mitsui Toatsu, and Nitto Chemical Industries Company (captive market). Crystals and solutions are available from Mitsui Toatsu and Mitsubishi, whereas only solution monomer is available from Nitto. 

Acrylamide-50 Handling and Storage Procedures, PRC 22B, American Cyanamid Co., Wayne, N.J., 1980. 

American Cyanamid Company Aqua Ben Corporation Bet2 Laboratories, Inc. 

J. J. Kozakiewicz, American Cyanamid Company, Stamford, Coim., unpubUshed results, 1987. 

David Lipp Joseph Kozakiewicz American Cyanamid Company... 

Processes rendered obsolete by the propylene ammoxidation process (51) include the ethylene cyanohydrin process (52—54) practiced commercially by American Cyanamid and Union Carbide in the United States and by I. G. Farben in Germany. The process involved the production of ethylene cyanohydrin by the base-cataly2ed addition of HCN to ethylene oxide in the liquid phase at about 60°C. A typical base catalyst used in this step was diethylamine. This was followed by liquid-phase or vapor-phase dehydration of the cyanohydrin. The Hquid-phase dehydration was performed at about 200°C using alkah metal or alkaline earth metal salts of organic acids, primarily formates and magnesium carbonate. Vapor-phase dehydration was accomphshed over alumina at about 250°C. 

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