Process for the recovery of epsilon-caprolactam from nylon 6 comprising fishing nets

Abstract

The present invention provides a process and a plant for recovering purified F-caprolactam from nylon 6 comprising fishing nets, wherein the plant comprises a depolymerization section [B], a recovery section [C], and a purification section [D]. The present invention also provides purified ε-caprolactam that has a particularly low product carbon footprint and is obtained via depolymerization of nylon 6 from fishing nets. In a second preferred embodiment, the purification of the distilled caprolactam is achieved by crystallization in a process of concentrating. The crystallized caprolactam resulting from concentrating is generally sufficiently pure to be used directly. After crystallization, it may be necessary to purify the mother liquor by, for example, recycling it to the aqueous solution before the extraction with the alkyl phenol. The mother liquor can be purified for example by means of distillation.