Ineos is making acetonitrile for vaccines
U.K.-based chemical company, Ineos, has announced plans to build an acetonitrile unit at its acrylonitrile plant in Cologne, Germany.
How it鈥檚 made. Most of the world鈥檚 acetonitrile is made as a byproduct of acrylonitrile production. When you react propylene (from an ethane or naphtha steam cracker) with oxygen and ammonia, you mostly end up with acrylonitrile and water 鈥� but a tiny amount of acetonitrile and hydrogen cyanide are produced, too.
That (relatively) small amount of acetonitrile isn鈥檛 always worth purifying. When demand for acetonitrile isn鈥檛 high enough, or the price isn鈥檛 right, the stream containing acetonitrile will be burned as a fuel on-site.
But now they want to purify it? Demand changed. Acetonitrile is used in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine manufacturing process, and we鈥檙e making a lot of vaccines. The manufacture of synthetic mRNA starts with an enzymatic process known as in vitro transcription (IVT) and ends with a purification step called ion pair reverse-phase chromatography. Acetonitrile is the solvent of choice for that...
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