Patent ID: 8067629

Claim:
A method of preventing foulant deposition in the manufacturing process of acrylonitrile which comprises: (i) cooling gas phase reactants from an amoxidation reaction of propylene, the gas phase reactants from an amoxidation reaction comprising nitrogen, acrylonitrile, hydrogen cyanide, acetonitrile, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, propylene, water, oxygen, acrolein, ammonia, carboxylic acids, aldehydes, and nitriles, (ii) passing the cooled gas phase reactants countercurrent to an aqueous stream of acid to neutralize ammonia present in the cooled gas phase reactants, (iii) recovering the ammonia from the gas phase reactants, (iv) contacting the remaining gas phase reactants with water to form a fluid phase of the manufacturing process, and (v) adding to the fluid phase of the manufacturing process an effective antifouling amount of styrene sulfonate polymer having the following repeating unit formula: wherein M is hydrogen, alkali metals or ammonium or a mixture of them, R is hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, alkylaryl, arylalkyl, R may contain heteroatoms, and n is an integer with a value greater than 10.