Wilmington, Delaware-DuPont has licensed its aniline technology to Chinese firm Fangyuan Chemical Industry Development Co. Ltd, part of the Tianji Group. The license will allow Fangyuan to produce 450 tonnes a day of aniline in Lucheng, Shanxi, China.The license agreement was reached via a collaboration between DuPont Intellectual Assets & Licensing, DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise, and Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) Aniline is used to make MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate), used mainly in making rigid and flexible polyurethane foams. Demand for aniline in China is expected to grow at a rate of more than 10 percent annually over the next five years, said DuPont. DuPont said that this is the first time aniline technology from outside China has been licensed to a Chinese company. All existing aniline plants in China are based on locally developed technology.The Wilmington-headquartered firm said in a 1 Nov statement that Fangyuan chose its technology because of lower manufacturing costs, superior product purity, environmental controls and "DuPont's highly regarded reputation for safely manufacturing this chemical for more than 50 years." "
