in accordance with the present disclosure , acn may be produced with high yields using a molybdenum - containing catalyst , and using as reactants a combination of ethanol and ammonium hydroxide ; a combination of ammonium hydroxide and acetic acid ; or from ammonium acetate combined with water . these processes do not require handling ammonia gas . in an embodiment of the process , the molybdenum - containing catalyst is prepared from 12 - molybdenum phosphate ( h 3 pmo 12 o 40 ) on a silica or silica alumina support . as discussed below , the catalyst support does not have stringent surface area requirements . in addition , it has been found that the presence of water ( i . e . presence and use of ammonium hydroxide ) minimizes picoline formation , thus increasing yields of acn to over 90 % with only minimal by - product formation . furthermore , phase separation of acn from bulk water in the reaction may be performed , lessening the heat utility of the process and making it more cost effective . details of the processes appear below in the discussion of the various examples . the reactants were fed into a tubular reactor , which may be prepared as detailed below , loaded with a molybdenum - containing catalyst . the reaction products were analyzed using a typical gas chromatography ( gc ) technique . a catalyst used in the disclosed processes may be prepared as follows : twenty grams of 12 - phosphomolybdate ( mop ) from aesar chemical are weighed out in a 250 ml glass beaker , then dissolved in 110 grams of di water and stirred until a complete solution was obtained . a quantity of 100 grams of silica gel , having a 500 m 2 / g surface area ( e . g . d - 50 - 60a microspheres ), is weighed out into a 500 ml round bottom flask . the mop solution is then poured all at once into the round bottom flask with swirling until all the silica is coated . ( water may be added if necessary to cover the silica .) the flask is placed on a rotoevaporator ( a steaming cone may be used if available ) and vacuum applied to 10 to 30 psig . heating is then raised slowly , with stirring and rotating at a slow rate , until the water is removed and the silica becomes dry and free flowing ; care should be taken to avoid pulling the dry silica out of the flask with vacuum . rotation of the flask is continued after removal of the water , while the flask cools to room temperature . vacuum is released after the flask cools . the silica should then contain about 20 % mop . commercially available extrudates for this process contain 20 wt % 12 - molybdophosphoric acid incorporated into a silica alumina dough . the catalyst support as described above is formed from silica , but may also be formed from any of a variety of other materials . for example , the catalyst support may be formed from any of silica alumina , clays , pillard clays , kiesulghur , titanium , alumina , carbon , zeolites , water glass , barium , calcium inorganic salts , metal oxides , ceramic , functionalized supports , resins and mixtures of the same . the catalyst support may be made into any shape desired ; for example , pellets , irregular particles , powders , spheres , extrudates , ceramic honeycomb , trilobe and pillared materials , and so forth . the catalyst may be loaded neat into the reactor , or inter - dispersed with inert packing material , trays , spacers , screens or the like . it will be appreciated that catalysts may be formed of metals besides molybdenum ; for example , transition metals in group iiib - viiib , ib and iib of the periodic table . oxides of such metals may also be used to form the catalyst . furthermore , metal compounds ( including compounds of molybdenum ) may be used with counter ions including ( for example ) phosphoric acid , fluorides , acetates , acetonylacetonates , chlorides , nitrates , sulfates , carbonates , bicarbonates and oxalates . a reactor suitable for carrying out a process according to the disclosure may be constructed as follows : a vertical reactor tube ( 10 mm id × 150 mm length stainless steel column , having about 10 grams volume ), with a 2 micron stainless steel frit , is loaded by pouring the dried catalyst into the tube , closed side down . ( alternatively , a tube 16 inches long × ¾ inches id with screens and quartz wool may be used .) the tube is vibrated so as to fill the tube evenly without voids . the tube is sealed with the frit and end fittings , and connected to reactor inlet and outlet line ( e . g . ¼ inch tubing with swage - type fittings ). the sealed tube is then placed into a furnace ( typically a clamshell or muffle furnace ). the feedstock vessel is attached to a pump via an intake line . the pump is attached to a 4 - way cross connector , to which is attached a nitrogen line , pressure gauge , knockout valve , back pressure regulator and pressure relief . a line leading from the cross connector connects to the reactor inlet . the reactor outlet connects to a glass dry ice condenser with a t / s 24 / 40 fitting which attaches to a round bottom flask with a side arm . this flask is placed into a dewar of wet ice . the threaded side arm is connected and sealed to polypropylene tubing having a length of approximately 2 feet with a compressed o - ring . the other end of the tube is attached to an intermediate knock out pot . the exit line from this knock out pot is attached to an acidic scrubber inlet and exit line , then connected to a basic scrubber with the exit line from this scrubber open to the atmosphere for discharge . the reaction is started by turning on n 2 gas or air and allowing it to pass through the reactor system . heat is turned on to the furnace until a reaction temperature of 500 ° c . to 600 ° c . is reached . alternatively , any catalyst deactivation can be reversed by regenerating the catalyst in air at a temperature between 500 ° c . and 600 ° c . it will be appreciated that a reactor for carrying out the disclosed processes may be constructed in a variety of alternate ways . for example , the reactor may be a continuous tubular , upflow or downflow , batch , continuous batch , sequential step or staged processing type . 30 meter carbowax 20m , 1 % coating , 0 . 32 mm id capillary splitless 40 ° c . hold 1 min to 170 ° c . hold 1 min oven temperature at a ramp rate of 10 ° c ./ min . a feed vessel was charged with 350 grams of 30 % ammonium hydroxide , and 46 grams of ethanol to give a 3 : 1 mole ratio . 4 grams of tricat sh090416 - 2 , 20 / 40 mesh were charged to a tubular reactor in a down - flow mode and run at autogenous pressure . the reactor was run as described above . the feed rate was 0 . 5 ml / min and temperature was 600 ° c . analysis by gc showed 3 . 18 % ( normalized 65 %) acn and 1 . 7 % ( normalized 35 %) diethylamine as the only products . conversion of ethanol was 100 %. to a feed vessel was blended 150 grams of ammonium acetate reagent . to this vessel was added 150 grams of water and the feed agitated until made homogeneous . the feed was set at a rate between 0 . 5 ml / min to 5 ml / min upflow . it will be appreciated , however , that a wide range of feed rates may be used to satisfy processing requirements in larger reactors ; the feed rate may range from a few ml / min to gallons per minute . this feed was pumped into a reactor 16 ″ long × ¾ ″ id containing a catalyst prepared as described above . the catalyst generally comprises 12 - molybdophosphoric acid impregnated on , or extruded with , silica or silica alumina oxides . 41 grams of this catalyst as extrudates were loaded into this reactor tube and placed inside a clamshell furnace . the furnace was heated to between 100 ° c . and 700 ° c . ( with a preferred range of 400 ° c . to 600 ° c .) at 0 . 5 ml / min ( preferred range of 0 . 5 ml / min to 5 ml / min ) under autogenous pressure . the product effluent that results is clear water white and may be condensed by any appropriate means such as a chiller , water , ice , dry ice , or cooling bath into a product receiver . samples taken from this receiver are analyzed by gc as detailed above . the gc data shows that about 20 % acn is obtained without by - products ; 2 . 5 % total acetic acid and ammonia products are observed which may be recombined back into the starting feedstock . accordingly , selectivities may approach 100 %, with conversions of 97 +% typically being realized , giving acn in 97 + wt % yields . the acn produced may be isolated by conventional means such as distillation or azeotropic distillation with water or other solvents such as benzene , hexanes , cyclohexane , and toluene and so forth . the acn produced may also be enriched by phase separation using a salt such as sodium chloride , sodium sulfate or the like . the preferred salt to separate acn from bulk water is ammonium acetate as discussed below in example 4 . table 2 gives details of the reaction products using 50 wt % nh4oac in water , with a processing temperature of 600 ° c ., feed rates of 0 . 5 ml / min and 1 ml / min , and a catalyst prepared from 41 g extrudate from tricat industries , inc . in this example , the total feed pumped was 232 g . the total product weight recovered was 208 . 9 g . product recovery was thus 90 %. no catalyst deactivation was observed . this data indicates the successful use of concentrated feed , which improves the economics of the process . no by - products were formed ; however , it was observed that cracking or hydrolysis occurred to give nh40h and hac . it was also found that these hydrolysis products occur in the gc injection port at 250 ° c . higher hac formation was observed at higher flow rates . a feedstock was prepared by adding 350 grams of 30 % ammonium hydroxide slowly to 120 grams of glacial acetic acid to give a 1 . 5 : 1 mole ratio of reactants . a feed rate was set at 0 . 5 ml / min upflow through the reactor described above . 3 . 25 grams of extruded 12 - molybdo phosphoric acid with silica alumina was used as the catalyst . reaction temperatures were in the range of 500 ° c . to 600 ° c . gc analysis of the product effluent , taken after 3 hours on stream , showed 14 . 4 wt % acn formation ( normalized to 94 . 7 wt %) and 0 . 8 wt % ( normalized to 5 . 2 wt %) of an unknown product suspected as being diethylamine . no other products were observed , giving a 95 % overall yield of acn as a clear water white liquid product . 10 grams of water were added to 5 grams of acn ; 1 gram of ammonium acetate was added and the mixture shaken for 30 seconds . two phases resulted . analysis of the upper phase shows that acn can be recovered as the major product . the majority of the lower layer contains water with some acn and salt . the upper layer is concentrated in acn and can be further distilled , thereby minimizing utility requirements so that bulk water does not have to be heated to recover acn typically as the water / acn azeotrope . this experiment was repeated using sodium chloride as salting agent . 10 grams of water was added to 10 grams of acn ; 1 gram of sodium chloride was added and the contents shaken for 30 seconds . two layers again formed . greater acn recovery was obtained in the upper layer . however , from a process standpoint the use of ammonium acetate is preferred since it is also the feedstock ; accordingly , no salt waste is generated . results show that both mixtures show a phase separation . using nacl gives a bigger layer and better recovery of acn . using nh4oac also shows that acn can be recovered with a little less acn in the upper layer . however since the process uses nh4oac it may be more cost effective to use this material as a phase separating agent . some acetate is carried into the upper phase as well . however the use of sodium chloride is better to phase separate acn then is ammonium acetate . the results of these experiments are summarized in table 3 . after the phase separation is performed , the acn may be recovered using a distillation process such as azeotropic distillation , zone refining , freeze drying or a combination of such methods . pure acn may thus be recovered with minimal post treatment and without the need to process large volumes of water . it will be appreciated that other salting agents may be used ; for example , various salts of sodium , calcium , barium , potassium , magnesium , manganese , lithium and cesium . the salting agent may have any of a variety of counter ions ; for example , chloride , acetate , sulfate , nitrate , fluoride , iodide , bicarbonate , carbonate and oxalate . furthermore , a mixture of salting agents may be used . the acn production process disclosed herein provides improved yields while using simple to prepare catalysts without stringent surface area requirements . acn can be produced with these catalysts using ethanol and ammonium hydroxide ; ammonium hydroxide and acetic acid ; or ammonium acetate and water , without the need for handling dangerous ammonia gas . in particular , the ammonium acetate process is environmentally friendly since little to no waste is generated . while the disclosure has been described in terms of specific embodiments , it is evident in view of the foregoing description that numerous alternatives , modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art . for example , hydrogen cyanide can also be produced by this process with the use of ammonium formate solution or formamide solution as the raw material . in - situ synthesis of hydrogen cyanide is desired in many chemical reactions in order to avoid large inventory of poisonous hydrogen cyanide . accordingly , the disclosure is intended to encompass all such alternatives , modifications and variations which fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosure and the following claims .