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SUMITOMO CHEMICAL Company Ltd. plans to partner with EniChem of Italy to use new technologies from both companies to produce caprolactam at a plant to be built at a manufacturing site in Japan. Caprolactam is a key raw material for nylon 6.
The companies have developed proprietary catalysts that provide significant cost advantages over conventional processes, according to Tokyo-based Sumitomo. The new caprolactam plant will essentially combine the technologies of Sumitomo's gas-phase Beckmann rearrangement with EniChem's direct ammoximation process.
Sumitomo says the drawback of the conventional process is that it also...