The invention relates to a method for producing a
particulate material comprising
polyamide 6. The method comprises: (i) providing a
solid particulate material MP (122) comprising
polyamide 6; (ii) feeding the material MP (122) provided according to (i) into a
melt extrusion apparatus E (114) via at least one material feeding device F1 (116, 140) wherein E (114) comprises (a) at least one material receiving member RE (120) for receiving the material MP (122) from the at least one feeding device F1 (116, 140) and for providing the MP (122) into a melting and conveying space SE (124); (b) a melting and conveying space SE (124) for melting
polyamide 6 contained in MP (122) and conveying a mixture ME (126) comprising molten polyamide 6 to at least one forming orifice OE (130) via a conveying member CM (128), where SE (124) has a length LSE (132); (c) at least one forming aperture OE (130) for forming at least one strip (134) from the ME (126); (d) at least one degassing means GE (136) for removing at least a portion of the
gas phase present in SE (124); (e) heating means HE (138) for providing polyamide 6 melting conditions in SE (124); (iii) subjecting the material MP (122) to polyamide 6 melting conditions in SE (124), obtaining the mixture ME (126) comprising molten polyamide 6 in SE (124), and further obtaining a
gas phase comprising one or more gaseous
decomposition products of the material MP (122) in SE (124), said melting conditions comprising a
melting temperature TM; (iv) removing at least a portion of the
gas phase obtained according to (iii) from SE (124) via the at least one degassing member GE (136); (v) removing the at least one strip (134) from the E (114) via the at least one forming orifice OE (130), the at least one strip (134) having a temperature TS, where TS < = TM; (vii) subjecting the at least one strand (134) to
granulation to obtain the
granular material MG (112). The invention further relates to a
particulate material comprising polyamide 6 and to a device for producing a particulate material comprising polyamide 6. Furthermore, the use of a particulate material comprising polyamide 6 for producing a
stream SCPL comprising purified epsilon-
caprolactam, or a process for producing a
stream SCPL comprising purified epsilon-
caprolactam from a particulate material MG, is proposed. Furthermore, the use of SCPL for the preparation of one or more of polymers and
polymer products, or a process for the preparation of one or more of polymers and
polymer products by employing SCPL is presented.