Adipic acid, dried crystals

Activity Adipic acid from cyclohexane via KA oil and nitric acid oxidation, RER: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedadipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acidPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset

Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Per 1 t of adipic acid, gate-to-gate from cyclohexane, with catalytic N2O decomposition at the IPCC default destruction and utilisation factors. Feeds from stoichiometry with sourced yields (US EPA 1991), energy from the IEA's Western European averages (2009, after a 1989 source), N2O from the IPCC 2006 defaults, other air emissions from AP-42 (1995).

Reference product: 1 kilogram of Adipic acid, dried crystals
Chemical: adipic-acid
CAS: 124-04-9
Code: adipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acid
Dataset: adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement version 0.1.0 · UUID f0c0b2ed-3598-5955-b68e-fa5ab14f6737
Activity UUID: not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database: cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process: Adipic acid from cyclohexane via KA oil and nitric acid oxidation
Geography: RER · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period: 1989 · valid until 2014
Technology: continuous two-stage process: air oxidation of cyclohexane, then oxidation of KA with 50 to 60 % nitric acid (EPA 1991, 3.2.2: 98 % of US output from cyclohexane in continuous operation) · level current
Boundary: gate-to-gate: cobalt-catalysed air oxidation of cyclohexane to KA (cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone) with cyclohexane recycle, nitric acid oxidation over copper-vanadium, NOx stripping and reabsorption, crystallisation, drying, catalytic N2O decomposition; nitric acid, steam, fuel and power from outside
Classification: ISIC Rev.4 2011 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model: attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation: mass, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights: CC-BY-4.0

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Adipic acid, dried crystals

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 7 calculated, 6 given. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary2 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.

Input	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree	Linked to
Cyclohexane feed:cyclohexane stoichiometry over both stages with the sourced yields y_ka and y_aa; unconverted cyclohexane is recycled. No open source states a consumption to compare (benchmarks/oxygenates.yaml)	0.7905	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 4 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'cyclohexane'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Nitric acid, 60 wt% weak acid (net make-up) feed:nitric-acid net make-up: the nitrogen that leaves as N2O (generated, before abatement) and as NOx; NO and NO2 are reabsorbed to nitric acid in the plant (EPA 1991, section 3.2.2.3; AP-42 6.2.3). As 60 wt% acid, the strength nitric-acid-1 makes, within the 50 to 60 % the EPA document gives; modelled as (HNO3)3(H2O)7 (59.98 wt% HNO3) so that the element balance can read it. A lower bound: N2 formation and acid lost to the effluent are not counted (system_boundary.excluded)	1.451	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 4 3	Atlas (pinned): Weak nitric acid by dual-pressure ammonia oxidation (1000 t/d HNO3 as 60 wt% acid) (Weak nitric acid 60 wt% to storage, GLO) compatible: grade the input names nitric-acid only; nitric-acid (Weak nitric acid 60 wt% to storage) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation shares (deviation); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Electricity feed:electricity IEA Information Paper (Saygin et al. 2009), Table 13, p. 50 (Western European average, from Chauvel and Lefebvre 1989) electricity	0.3889	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 5 3 3	market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Steam, as heat delivered feed:steam IEA Information Paper (Saygin et al. 2009), Table 13, p. 50 (Western European average, from Chauvel and Lefebvre 1989); gross, no credit for steam raised from the reaction or N2O decomposition heat	7.139	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 5 3 3	Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
Fuel, counted as heat from natural gas feed:fuel IEA Information Paper (Saygin et al. 2009), Table 13, p. 50 (Western European average, from Chauvel and Lefebvre 1989); natural gas ASSUMED	0.3333	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 5 3 3	Atlas: heat from natural gas, industrial furnace, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from natural gas, by energy, GLO)
Dibasic acids (glutaric and succinic) in the mother-liquor bleed, to recovery or treatment output:dibasic-acids closes the carbon balance of the nitric acid oxidation after its CO2, CO and organics; modelled as glutaric acid C5H8O4 (ASSUMED). AP-42 6.2.2 says they may be recovered and sold; here an output without allocation, not a co-product	0.03022	kilogram	calculated	4 4 4 4 4	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Effluent water to wastewater treatment output:wastewater closes the hydrogen balance: water of the weak acid plus reaction water, removed by distillation (BREF 2.1.2.3.3). Wash and recrystallisation water is not counted (in = out ASSUMED, system_boundary.excluded)	0.9157	kilogram	calculated	4 4 4 4 4	Atlas (plant): wastewater to treatment, per kg (Atlas unit proxy) (wastewater, by mass, GLO) compatible: grade the input names wastewater only; wastewater (Wastewater treated) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)

Elementary flows

Flow	Direction	Compartment	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree
Carbon dioxide, fossil 349b29d1-3e58-4c66-98b9-9d1a076efd2e	emission	air	0.6206	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 4 3
Water 075e433b-4be4-448e-9510-9a5029c1ce94	emission	air	1.706e-4	cubic meter	calculated	4 4 4 4 4
Carbon monoxide, fossil ba2f3f82-c93a-47a5-822a-37ec97495275	emission	air	3.9e-4	kilogram	given	3 4 5 4 3
NMVOC, non-methane volatile organic compounds d3260d0e-8203-4cbb-a45a-6a13131a5108	emission	air	5.87e-4	kilogram	given	3 4 5 4 3
Nitrogen oxides c1b91234-6f24-417b-8309-46111d09c457	emission	air	0.00811	kilogram	given	3 4 5 4 3
Dinitrogen monoxide 20185046-64bb-4c09-a8e7-e8a9e144ca98	emission	air	0.05303	kilogram	calculated	3 4 4 3 3

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/adipic-acid-1/lca/datasets/adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review: Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality: not available
Mass and carbon closure: Not available: a hand-written dataset: no lca/manifest.json records its balance
Change report: Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

KPI	Value	Reference range	Position
N2O emitted per t of adipic acid by a plant with N2O abatement	– kg/t	18.1 to 41 kg/t Ecofys, Fraunhofer ISI, Öko-Institut (2009) Methodology for the free allocation of emission allowances in the EU ETS post 2012: Sector report for the chemical industry, by order of the European Commission (study contract 07.0307/2008/515770/ETU/C2) (government)	not evaluated
N2O generated per t of adipic acid, before abatement	– kg/t	291.3 to 291.3 kg/t US EPA (1995) Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors (AP-42), Fifth Edition, Volume I, Chapter 6 Organic Chemical Process Industry, Section 6.2 Adipic Acid, final section January 1995 (government)	not evaluated
Cyclohexane consumption per t of adipic acid No open source with a cyclohexane or KA consumption per t of adipic acid found (2026-11-05). Read: LVOC BREF 2017 section 2.1.2.3.3 (no consumption data), US EPA EPA-450/3-91-026 section 3.2.2 (yield ranges only, which the datasets use), AP-42 section 6.2 (emission factors only), the EU ETS benchmark study of 2009 chapter 6 (emissions only), the IEA information paper of 2009 (energy only). Kirk-Othmer and Ullmann's are not open access and were not read.	– kg/t	not available	not evaluated
Electricity per t of adipic acid No open source with an adipic acid electricity figure independent of the datasets found (2026-11-05), in the same documents as aa-specific-steam. The IEA paper gives 0.5 GJ/t at best practice and 1.4 GJ/t as the Western European average (139 to 389 kWh/t); the datasets take the average.	– kWh/t	not available	not evaluated
Nitric acid (100 % HNO3) consumption per t of adipic acid No open source with a nitric acid consumption per t of adipic acid found (2026-11-05), in the same documents as aa-specific-cyclohexane. The datasets' make-up is the nitrogen of the N2O and NOx only, a lower bound.	– kg/t	not available	not evaluated
Steam (as heat) per t of adipic acid No open source with an adipic acid steam figure independent of the datasets found (2026-11-05). The IEA information paper (Saygin et al. 2009) gives 18.5 GJ/t at best practice (Table 1, p. 14, estimated, footnote 2) and 25.7 GJ/t as the estimated current Western European average (Table 13, p. 50), both after Chauvel and Lefebvre (1989), that is 5139 to 7139 kWh/t; the datasets take the average, so binding it would be transcription only. Also read: LVOC BREF 2017 section 2.1.2.3.3, the EU ETS benchmark study of 2009 chapter 6 (CO2 of the steam only), EPA-450/3-91-026 and AP-42 6.2 (no energy figures).	– kWh/t	not available	not evaluated

How to use it

Downloads

cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx · bw2io ExcelImporter workbook (bw2io 0.9 Excel layout) · the whole database
code adipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acid
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-olca-jsonld.zip · openLCA JSON-LD (olca-schema) (2) · the whole database
process f0c0b2ed-3598-5955-b68e-fa5ab14f6737 (processes/f0c0b2ed-3598-5955-b68e-fa5ab14f6737.json)
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-multifunctional.json · Brightway 2.5 multifunctional database (JSON, for the multifunctional package) (cheme-as-code/lci-multifunctional/v1) · the whole database
code adipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acid
cheme_as_code_lci-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl · the installer

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4", "adipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acid"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Adipic acid, dried crystals, from Adipic acid from cyclohexane via KA oil and nitric acid oxidation (dataset adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity adipic-acid-1:adipic-acid-ka-nitric-catalytic-n2o-abatement:product:adipic-acid. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-a3c52e4.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX

@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. arXiv:2611.07947. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947

BibTeX

@misc{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering}},
  year = {2026},
  eprint = {2611.07947},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07947}
}