Solution 3 · In development
The platform at work across an entire value chain: oxidising simple sugar, splitting water with renewable power, and reaching a high-performance engineering thermoplastic without a barrel of oil anywhere in the route.
The value chain
The carbon backbone comes from sugar. The hydrogen comes from water. The nitrogen comes from air. Everything the polymer needs is reachable from renewable inputs, and the reactor sits at two separate points in the chain.
Step one
Both halves of the cell do useful work. The anode oxidises the sugar into the acid we want; the cathode makes hydrogen we need further down the chain.
Hydroxide ions (OH⁻) drive the oxidation of both the aldehyde group (C1) and the primary alcohol group (C6) of glucose into carboxylate groups.
C₆H₁₂O₆ + 8OH⁻ → C₆H₈O₈²⁻ + 6H₂O + 6e⁻
Water molecules undergo the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) by accepting electrons.
6H₂O + 6e⁻ → 3H₂ + 6OH⁻
Step two
The hydrogen co-produced with the glucose oxidation goes straight on to carry glucaric acid through to adipic acid.
C₆H₁₀O₈ + 4H₂ → C₆H₁₀O₄ + 4H₂O
This reaction operates best at elevated temperature and pressure. Because the platform already produces hydrogen at pressure, there is no need to compress the hydrogen stream, saving energy and removing the need for expensive rotating equipment.
Step three
Adipic acid production is not the only step that consumes hydrogen. Nylon 6,6 is heavy on hydrogen consumption. Supercritical's HyPress® system provides high-pressure hydrogen for the hydrogenation step that produces Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA), and high-pressure hydrogen to the green ammonia synthesis required for the ammonolysis step that produces adiponitrile, itself a precursor to HMDA.
Step four
Adipic acid and HMDA are combined in equal proportions and polymerised. Traditional fossil production routes emit roughly 6.4 tonnes of CO₂e per tonne of Nylon 6,6. Run on renewable power and bio-feed, this route is designed to emit none.
Products & applications
The market demands over 3 million tonnes of Nylon 6,6 today, with the value exceeding $11 billion. It is an established, high-volume engineering polymer, and almost all of it is made from fossil feedstock.
Bio-adipic acid and HMDA are the core chemical precursors required to manufacture this polymer, and both are reachable from the same renewable agricultural feedstocks. See the hydrogen pathway →
Work with us
We’re building this now, following the same stage-gated process that delivered hydrogen and Glycerine→X. If you are an agri business with a sugar stream, or you operate in the nylon value chain, a conversation is where it all starts. Get in touch →