Breaking through the key technical barriers, Xuyang has successfully completed the construction of its own 50,000-ton/year facility for producing adipic acid from caprolactam

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At 6:18 on May 4, 2026, with the successful completion of the final production step, the 50,000-ton-per-year caprolactam-to-adipamide production facility at Xuyang Group’s Yuncheng plant was fully operational; the plant started up successfully and produced qualified products. The direct production of hexamethylenediamine from caprolactam breaks the long-term foreign monopoly on hexanitrocin technology – a key raw material for producing hexamethylenediamine, the intermediate used in the manufacture of Nylon 66, and which is considered the crucial link in the Nylon industry chain. By overcoming this bottleneck technology, Xuyang is able to develop high-end new materials and gradually build an industrial cluster for \"Nylon 6 + Nylon 66 + specialty nylons\" on a scale of millions of tons, thus laying the foundation for a premier new Nylon materials industry base. Industry background and current development: Adipic acid is an important raw material that underpins the upgrading of the nylon-based new materials industry. Innovations and breakthroughs in its production technologies hold great significance for the development of China’s chemical industry. Although the current industry process of producing adiponitrile from butadiene and then converting it into adipamide is technically mature, it has significant shortcomings: on one hand, due to fluctuations in the price of butadiene as a raw material, production costs remain high ； On the other hand, the processes are complex, the technical barriers are extremely high, and the key core patents have long been monopolized by foreign companies. Against this backdrop, Xuyang Group took a unique approach by carrying out independent research and development to create new technologies and processes for directly producing hexamethylenediamine from caprolactam. This approach broke the industry monopoly, overcame key technical barriers, and opened up new paths and methods for the production of hexamethylenediamine. R&D Progress and Innovation Achievements of Xuyang Group. As the world’s largest independent coking producer and supplier, as well as a leader in the diversified coal chemical industry, Xuyang Group focuses on strategic needs and keeps a close eye on trends in industrial transformation. As early as 2011, it took proactive steps to enter the caprolactam industry; while expanding its operations, it established R&D teams to carry out independent research and development on new processes and technologies related to caprolactam and its downstream applications. Over the past decade or so, the R&D team at Xuyang has continuously optimized the process through over a thousand pilot-scale experiments. They have steadily progressed to the construction and stable operation of a pilot plant, and further intensified their efforts to achieve full-scale industrial implementation. Throughout the process of pilot testing, pilot-scale production, process development, and industrialization, over a hundred challenges were addressed, resulting in dozens of core patents with complete independent intellectual property rights. Ultimately, an innovative process for directly producing hexamethylenediamine from caprolactam was successfully developed. The R&D team has demonstrated through their actions the Asunshine￥ spirit of \"going all out, persevering relentlessly, never giving up, and being determined to succeed.\" Given the disruptive, cutting-edge, and pioneering strategic value of this achievement in independent innovation, Shandong Province has designated Xuyang Group’s project as a key provincial project. The commissioning of the adipic acid project, which reflects Xuyang’s advantages in core industries and industrial competitiveness, has fully demonstrated the company’s strengths in industrial synergy and research and development innovation. It has significantly enhanced Xuyang’s core competitiveness in the field of new nylon materials, while also strengthening and elevating its leading position in the chemical industry. 1. Stable and efficient industrial collaboration: The stable operation of the hexamethylenediamine production facility, along with its full capacity utilization, will enable efficient coordination with the group’s existing 810,000 tons per year caprolactam production chain, as well as the upstream production lines for adipic acid, cyclohexanone, nitric acid, etc., located in the Yuncheng industrial park. This will facilitate resource sharing, technological upgrades, increased production capacity, and the maximization of operational efficiency. Xuyang Group has a solid industrial foundation in the aromatic hydrocarbons industry chain. Starting from pure benzene, moving on to caprolactam and then to hexamethylenediamine, it is possible to extend this industry chain further downstream to high-value sectors such as sheet production, spinning, weaving, injection molding, modification, and polyurethanes. This approach helps to accelerate the development of a complete industry chain for nylon 6, nylon 66, and specialty nylons, encompassing upstream raw materials, midstream monomers, and downstream products. 2. The capability for continuous research and development: The process of producing hexamethylenediamine directly from caprolactam offers significant advantages over traditional methods, including a simplified production process, lower investment costs, higher safety levels, and a higher conversion rate of raw materials. Both the process and the catalyst are proprietary intellectual properties of Xuyang, breaking through the technical barriers related to key raw materials for new polyamide materials at home and abroad and filling a gap in China’s industry. 3. Continuous process optimization to reduce costs, along with the use of low-cost raw materials: Xuyang Group’s technology for producing hexamethylenediamine directly from caprolactam results in significantly lower production costs per ton compared to the butadiene method; in the future, it will be possible to further reduce operating costs through a combination of research and development and production efforts. As the world’s second-largest producer of caprolactam, Xuyang Group benefits from scale advantages, advantages in its industrial chain, and a well-developed infrastructure, all of which enhance the cost competitiveness of its adipic acid products. Xuyang’s future plans and development strategy: Focusing on the upstream and downstream aspects of caprolactam, Xuyang Group has developed and reserved a range of technologies and products, including hexamethylenediamine and elastic nylon. As its core technologies continue to improve and become more stable, Xuyang will expand its operations further, thereby injecting new momentum into China’s nylon 66 industry and related sectors. Looking to the future, Xuyang Group will continue to rely on innovation as a driving force for progress and on service as a catalyst for development. It will further deepen its vertical integration strategy, focus on high-end chemicals and new materials, and work to strengthen its portfolio in this field. The group is committed to helping China overcome technical barriers in the chemicals and new materials sector, to building a modern industrial system that is self-sufficient and under effective control, and to achieving domestic substitution for key materials such as nylon 66, thereby contributing to Xuyang’s role in this endeavor. Source: Ruiyang Group