Sourced conceptual inventory per tonne of adipic acid, with and without catalytic N2O decomposition: feeds from stoichiometry with US EPA yield ranges, N2O from the IPCC 2006 defaults, energy from IEA Western European averages, air emissions from AP-42. No flowsheet; not reviewed.
Adipic acid from cyclohexane via KA oil and nitric acid oxidation
Sourced conceptual inventory per tonne of adipic acid, with and without catalytic N2O decomposition: feeds from stoichiometry with US EPA yield ranges, N2O from the IPCC 2006 defaults, energy from IEA Western European averages, air emissions from AP-42. No flowsheet; not reviewed.
Research outputNot engineering advice and not an approved design: do not use it for construction, operation or safety decisions. What this means
Overview
- Capacity
- per tonne of adipic acid (the datasets' basis); no plant size
What goes in and out
In
- CyclohexaneFeedstock
- Nitric acidFeedstocknet make-up as 60 wt% weak acid, linked to nitric-acid-1
- AirFeedstockfeed:oxygen: oxygen of the process air, free (closes the balance)
Out
- Adipic acidMain product
- WastewaterWaste
- Carbon dioxideEmissionKA-section off-gas and residue burned on site, and the nitric acid oxidation
- WaterEmissioncombustion water vapour
Utilities: Electricity, Steam (counted as heat delivered (kWh), gross), Methane (feed:fuel: fuel counted as heat from natural gas (kWh), ASSUMED natural gas)
Life cycle assessment
No footprint assessed yet; the process is part of the life-cycle inventory below.
In the open LCI database (cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4) as Adipic acid, dried crystals Preliminary; Adipic acid, dried crystals Preliminary.
Download it for Brightway, openLCA and other tools.
In the LCI database: system model, datasets and KPIs against the benchmarks
In the LCI database
- Status
- Preliminary 4 unmapped exchanges. Some exchanges have no background mapping yet: they are exported unlinked and count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete.
- System model
- attributional, cut-off (methodology 1.1.0)
- Allocation
- mass (single-output, from default) · product:adipic-acid 100 %
- Allocation
- mass (single-output, from default) · product:adipic-acid 100 %
- Allocation findings
- none
- Change report
- Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.
- Dataset pages
- Adipic acid, dried crystals Preliminary · Adipic acid, dried crystals Preliminary
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 | not evaluated |
| N2O generated per t of adipic acid, before abatement | – kg/t | 291.3 to 291.3 kg/t | 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 |
| KPI | Value | Reference range | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| N2O generated per t of adipic acid, before abatement | – kg/t | 291.3 to 291.3 kg/t | 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 |
Maturity and review
Design maturity Concept (claimed): An idea or first flowsheet; numbers are rough. No independent engineering review yet. Automated checks passing is not a review.
Calculation maturity, from the checked evidenceNot assessed
The process has no maturity report (cheme maturity, checks/maturity.json), so no calculation maturity is established.
No level shownThe design maturity (Concept) is the manifest's claim, not evidence. A level appears here once the process's repository holds a current report from
cheme maturity --write.Artifact completeness
Which deliverables exist. They never raise a calculation maturity level: a drawing from unchecked numbers is still unchecked.
Not reported without a maturity report.
Independent review
Not independently reviewed
No independent engineering review yet. Automated checks passing is not a review.
Set by people only. Reaching a calculation maturity level or passing automated checks is not an independent review or an approval.
Where the evidence comes from
- Report
processes/adipic-acid-1/checks/maturity.json(not in the library)- Method
- How ChemE-as-Code checks the levels (requirement by requirement)
Open items
0 open items · 0 closed
New action itemNew engineering holdNew technical queryNew design changeAll issues
Sources
- Library version
- a3c52e4 (process last changed in a3c52e4)
- Data
- Catalog record (JSON) · CC-BY-4.0
- Files
- View the files on GitHub · change history and authors
References
- IPCC (2006) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Vol. 3 Industrial Processes and Product Use, Ch. 3 Chemical Industry Emissions, section 3.4 Adipic acid production, Table 3.4
- US EPA (1991) Alternative Control Techniques Document: Nitric and Adipic Acid Manufacturing Plants, EPA-450/3-91-026, chapter 3.2
- US EPA (1995) AP-42, Fifth Edition, Volume I, section 6.2 Adipic Acid
- Saygin, D., Patel, M.K., Tam, C., Gielen, D.J. (2009) Chemical and Petrochemical Sector: Potential of best practice technology and other measures for improving energy efficiency. IEA Information Paper, OECD/IEA, Tables 1 and 13
- Falcke, H. et al. (2017) Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Production of Large Volume Organic Chemicals. JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 28882 EN (JRC109279), section 2.1.2.3.3 · doi:10.2760/77304
- 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, chapter 6 Adipic acid (benchmark reference only)
How to cite
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).
For this process: "Adipic acid from cyclohexane via KA oil and nitric acid oxidation", ChemE-as-Code process library, version a3c52e4.
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}
}