Economic Evaluation And Comparison Of The Industrial Photosynthesis Of Caprolactam Via Solar Or Lamp Operated Photooximation Of Cylohexane

A solar photochemical plant was drawn up for the manufacture of e-caprolactam which is the base chemical for nylon-6. For the design and for the calculation of costs the lamp operated concept of Toray Ltd. was adapted to solar requirements. In a base case a unit with a capacity of 10,000 t/a was considered. Using that concept an economic evaluation was made to check the cost of solar production against the equivalent lamp-operated process. The results of the economic calculations suggest that solar production of e-caprolactammay be profitable and large areas in the world are suitable for industrial solar photochemistry.