Published November 1993
A new polyester, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), made from dimethyl-2,6-naphtha lenedicarboxylate (NDC) and ethylene glycol, has the potential to fill the gap between polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other high performance polymers. The major hindrance to large-scale PEN market growth is the cost of the NDC monomer. NDC is currently produced in semi-commercial quantities and sells for $5.50/lb. Amoco has announced plans to build a commercial scale NDC plant with an antici pated start-up in 1995. The new facility will have a capacity of 100 million lb/yr (45,000 t/yr) of 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, an intermediate used to make NDC. Amoco is targeting a price of $1.50/lb for NDC from its new facility. Several newly disclosed Amoco patents describe the preparation of NDC in a series of six major reaction steps beginning with o-xylene. This review describes each process step and includes a block process flow diagram and product cost estimate.
