Materials News

MMA process reduces costs
Evonik Industries has developed what it says is a cost-saving process for making methyl methacrylate (MMA). Known as Aveneer, the process is based on ammonia, methane, acetone and methanol, just like the traditional ACH sulphur process, but it does away with additional use of sulphuric acid. By not needing to reprocess sulphuric acid, Aveneer saves costs and conserves resources, says the German company.

Aveneer comes as an additional process in Evonik's MMA technology portfolio as the company is currently building a plant in Shanghai, China, to use a licenced process to produce MMA from C4. This technology is said to be much more favourable than the traditional acetone cyanohydrin process that involves hydrocyanic acid and generates acidic waste water and solid ammonium bisulphate waste.

According to Evonik, Aveneer can be installed at typical chemical plants found worldwide. It has proven the feasibility of the process in test production and the planning of the first large-scale plant will begin in the next few months, with commissioning in 2012.