Introduction

Global polyester production in all forms is currently around 56

million tones and may cross 100 million in the next decade.
Higher capacity addition is estimated in polyester filament (thread)
and chips segment compared to staple fibres in the next 2-3 years.
Indian textile industry has the potential to grow to US $ 220 billion
by 2020 from current size of around 80 billion.
Besides, the lower per capita consumption of around 5 kg as
against global average of 11 kg indicates huge potential for
expansion of fiber.
Indian polyester polymer production is likely to grow at a CAGR
Compounded Annual Growth Rate (the return on an
investment over a certain period of time) of 10-11percent as
against global average of 7percent and is expected to reach 10
million tonnes by 2020.
In India, the polyester filament and resin markets are witnessing
higher growth prospects.
Reliance is taking significant expansions across the polyester chain
Terephthalic acid (TPA) and Dimethyl
Terephthalate (DMT) are major building
blocks for manufacture of polyethylene
terephthalate (Polyester) fibers and resins.
The increase in the PET demand in the
major market fibers, film and rigid
packaging has been the primary drivers for
the DMT/PTA market.
Uses of purified terephthalic acid PSF
(Polyester Staple Fibre), PFY (Polyester
Filament Yarn) Polyester resins, PET
 DMT
p-xylene and recycled p-toluic acid esters (PTE) are
oxidized with air at 140-1500C & 6 kg/cm2 pressure in
the presence of cobalt or manganese salts catalyst to
form p-toluic acid, terephthalic acid (TPA),Monomethyl
terephthalate (MMT).
The finial oxidation product goes to the esterfication
column and it is esterified with methanol at 240-2500C
& pressure of 25 kg/cm2.
p-toluic acid is esterified to p-toluic ester while TPA &
MMT from DMT.
Methanol from the top of the esterfication column goes
to ester separating column where methanol and ester
are separated.
Methanol goes to the rectification column for purification
and p-toluic ester is recirculated as a feed to the
oxidators.
Raw ester from the bottom of the esterfication column is
flashed in the flash distillation column.
The top product goes to raw distillation column while the
residue from the bottom of the flash distillation column
goes to the residue burning unit.
Remaining PTE in the raw ester is removed as a top
product from the raw ester distillation column and
recirculated to the oxidators.
The bottom product from the raw ester distillation column
contains impurities which are removed by crystallization
and centrifugation.
The recrystallized DMT is further purified in the DMT
column.
Manufacture of DMT by Nobel
process
Manufacture of DMT
Manufacture of DMT by Witten Process
TPA (Amco Proess)
Process consists of two steps:
Oxidation of p-Xylene to crude terephthalic
acid
Purification of crude terephthalic acid by
crystallization.
Oxidation of p-Xylene
p-xylene is oxidized with air at 20 am pressure
& 200-2100C temperature in the presence of
catalyst cobalt acetate, manganese acetate
and hydrobromic acid as a promoter.
The reaction is carried out in the presence of
acetic acid.
Terephthalic acid is crystallized in series of
crystallizers under vacuum.
The slurry from the third crystallizer is filtered
in a rotary filter, washed and the crude TPA is
sent to a dryer where the residual acetic acid is
removed.
Purification of crude TPA
The purification of crude TPA consists of catalytic
hydrogenation and re-crystallization of crude TPA.
TPA slurry in water is hydrogenated in the
presence of palladium catalyst, where 4-carboxy
benzaldehyde is reduced to p-toluic acid and
other coloring impurities are also reduced to
removable material.
The solution from the reactor at 2500C & 80 bar
pressure is flashed through a series of
crystallizers.
The purified TPA is crystallized, centrifuged and
dried.
Manufacture of PTA by Amco Process
TPA (Mobil process)
P-xylene is oxidized in the presence of cobalt based
catalyst without using any promoter.
The reaction takes place in the acetic acid medium
at around 1300C.
Methyl ethyl ketone is used as the activator.
After cooling, washing and centrifuging, crude TPA is
passed on to the purification section.
Here the purification of crude TPA takes place in two
steps:
The crude TPA is slurred with acetic acid and
charged to the leaching stage.
During leaching impurities, like p-carboxyl
benzaldehyde and cobalt catalyst are removed from
the Crude TPA.
Crude TPA (about 99.5%) is further purified by
Some of the advantages of TPA over DMT are as follows:
unit of polyester produced is about 15 percent less TPA is
required.
Bulk density of TPA is 1.0 tonne/m3 as compared to DMT (0.5
tonne/m3). Thus transportation
costs and storage requirements for TPA are significantly
lower.
TPA process required a lesser feed mole ratio of glycol to PTA
of around 1.2 against 1.6 for DMT.
Esterification reaction of TPA does not require any catalyst
whereas the trans esterification of DMT has to be catalyzed.
With TPA process water is the byproduct whereas with DMT
process methanol is the byproduct. Therefore, more process
hazards in handling methanol.
With the TPA process, it is easier to reclaim polymer.
Product from TPA is better with respect to thermal and
hydrolytic stability.
Product cost in case of TPA is lesser due to reduced raw
material requirement, reduced transport and handling cost.
 NYLON 66
It is produced by polymerization of adipic acid and
hexamethylene diamine.
Process steps involved in the manufacture of Nylon 66 are:
Production of Nylon salt (Hexamethylene diammonium adipate)
by reacting of adipic acid with hexamethylene diamine.
(a reactor is generally termed as an autoclave reactor, when it
is a high pressure batch reactor. mostly this kind of reactors are
used for sterilization the reactants.)
Concentration of Nylon salt
Polymerization of Nylon salt into a jacketed vessel equipped
with internal coils and heated by downtherm.
Cooling and chips production
Spining of Nylon 66 chips
Recovery section
Nylon salt (hexamethylene diammonium adipate)
is prepared by mixing adipic acid and
hexamethylene diamine in 1:1 molar ratio.

Adipic acid is the basic raw material for the

manufacture of Nylon 66
World overall demand for adipic acid is growing
by 3.6% during 2000-2010.
Adipic acid is manufactured from number of
starting raw materials like phenol, cyclohexane,
tetrahydrofuran, etc.
 bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with
or without flanges, on which wire,
yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins
are typically found in sewing
machines, cameras, and within
electronic equipment.
Process of Nylon 66 production
 Nylon 6
It is produced from polymerization of
caprolactam
Process steps involved in production of Nylon
6 involve the following steps:
Caprolactam melting & addition of
additives
Polymerization: Batch/continuous and chips
production
Chips washing & drying
Spinning of Nylon
Recovery of section
Caprolactam is polymerized to Nylon 6 polymer by ring opening
polymerization at 240-2700C in presence of water, which opens the
ring structure of the caprolactam to give amino caproic acid.

Amino caproic acid is further polymerized to nylon 6 by either in

Continuous or batch wise operation.
In a continuous reactor aqueous Caprolactam along with stabilizers
and catalysts are introduced into the top of a stainless steel
polymerization column, which is heated a temperature of 240-270 0C.
Nylon 6 of a desired degree of polymerization from the bottom of the
polymerization reactor is extruded, chilled and cut into pellets of
size desired for extraction and spinning.
Batch operation- autoclave reactor used; 240-270 0C & 1atm.
Process of Nylon 6 production
Applications:
Components for textile machinery, railway,
defense and automobile industries.
Components for electrical and electronic
industries.
Film for packaging of food stuffs, vegetable
oils..
Components for hardware, building and
furniture industries.
Nylon-6 is tough, lightweight, abrasion
resistant, shock resistant, corrosion resistant,
heat resistant with higher melting point, low
 Difference
Both Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6's polyamide chains are
held together using hydrogen bonds, adding to the
strength of the fibers.
Nylon 6,6 is tighter with less openings, making it
the stronger and more resistant to heat of the two
Nylons.
both differ in their melting points, with Nylon 6
melting at 216 degrees Celsius and Nylon 6,6
having a melting point of 263 degrees Celsius.
This makes Nylon 6,6 the preferred Nylon for
temperature performance products.
Nylon 6,6 is preferred over 6 for making carpets
because of its higher strength and toughness.
Nylon 6 is primarily used in the textile industry for
 POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALTE
(POLYESTER)
There are two routes for making Polyester DMT route
or PTA route. However, with availability of the pure
terephthalic acid and because of its advantages over
dimethyl terephthalate,
Now polyester through esterification route is more
commonly used.
Raw Material: Terephthalic acid (TPA), ethylene
glycol, dimethyl terephthalate.
Typical Polyester plant consist of following unit
P-xylene; DMT unit/PTA unit; Ethylene glycol;
Polyester manufacture; Transesterification(incase of
DMT)/ Esterification (incase of PTA); Polymerisation;
Spinning; Cutting and bailing