On November 30, 2018 “The technology for manufacture of xylene from toluene and methanol with coproduction of low-carbon ole fins” jointly developed by the Yanchang Petroleum Group (YPG) and the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) had passed the appraisal of research achievements.

In order to open up a new technical route for alkylation of toluene to p-xylene, the technical personnel of YPG and DICP have been jointly engaging in the activities for tackling key problems to set up a 10 kt/a commercial unit for producing xylene through reaction of methanol with toluene along with coproduction of low-carbon olefins. The said commercial unit rated at ten thousand tons of xylene per annum came online with all pieces of equipment in the process flow sheet operating normally in April 2018, and had passed the 72-hour calibration tests to harvest a toluene single-pass conversion of 26.24% and a methanol single-pass conversion of 93.27%.

The said technical achievement adopts a novel zeolite catalyst with the alkylation process implemented in a moving bed by either integrating the petrochemical reaction with the coal chemical process, or combining the coal feedstock with natural gas resources to open up a new route for production of para-xylene and lower ole fins,which can provide a technical support to the construction of an integrated base for production of p-xylene—terephthalic acid—polyester industry envisaged in China's long-range plan.