Asahi Kasei Chemicals (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) held an opening ceremony celebrating the construction of a new acetonitrile plant in Tongsuh Petrochemical’s plant grounds in Ulsan, Korea, which started up operations in January 2014.
Acetonitrile is mainly used as a solvent in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates, with other notable uses including as an analytical reagent and in the field of agrichemicals. The startup of the new plant provides Asahi Kasei Chemicals with a second production base for acetonitrile, in addition to its plant in Kawasaki, Japan, which has a capacity of 14,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of acetonitrile. The new plant’s capacity is 11,000 m.t./yr of acetonitrile.