Almost 90 percent of adipic acid produced is used in the production of nylon 66. (PHOTO: VCG)

By CHEN Chunyou & YONG Li

Previously, many Chinese knew Fuling district in southwest China's Chongqing municipality for producing a kind of unique preserved pickle. Today, however, it has a new calling card as a giant producer of synthetic new materials.

Fuling is the first location in China to commercially develop shale gas fields, which helped form an advanced synthetic new material industry cluster in recent years.

Globally, butadiene, acrylonitrile and adipic acid are used to produce adiponitrile.

In the past, Chongqing Huafon Chemical Co., Ltd. (Huafon), a new materials provider, imported adiponitrile from foreign manufacturers. With encouragement from the Fuling government, Huafon formed teams with researchers from local universities, and managed to use the adipic acid to produce adiponitrile. It solved problems occurring in the traditional process, such as high consumption of adipic acid and low control of its stability. In addition, the by-products of the adipic acid process were reused while high-quality adiponitrile products were produced.

Nylon 66, synthesized by polycondensation of ethylenediamine and adipic acid, is widely used in engineering plastics, industrial fibers and civil fibers. Recently, a piece of equipment, which was manufactured through patented technology of Huafon, was put into use. It will help further meet the domestic demand for nylon 66 raw materials.

Independent innovation is the key to expanding the industrial chain, said Yin Zhongyou, director of the Fuling Bureau of Science and Technology.

Now, Fuling is accelerating the construction of Baitao New Material Sci-tech City, which is home to new material enterprise clusters. Yin said the district will establish a number of influential R&D institutions, so as to help local enterprises to obtain patented technology and equipment, and achieve additional breakthroughs in the industrial chain.