Successful Start of S-Oil's Onsan Refinery Using ExxonMobil PxMax Process

ExxonMobil Chemical Technology Licensing LLC and S-Oil Corporation today announced the successful start-up of ExxonMobil's PxMax technology at S-Oil's Onsan refinery and chemical complex in South Korea. The PxMax process licensed by ExxonMobil and implemented at the Onsan refinery replaced a non-selective toluene disproportionation (TDP) process that produced equilibrium mixed xylenes. The selective nature of the PxMax process provides S-Oil with a paraxylene-enriched mixture that is further processed into sales grade paraxylene product at S-Oil's facility.

David Starkey, Global Xylenes Licensing Manager, ExxonMobil Chemical Technology Licensing LLC, said, "S-Oil is an important refiner and petrochemical producer in South Korea. We are very pleased that they have selected our PxMax technology to increase their overall paraxylene production and improve the cost-competitiveness of their Onsan refinery."

"We selected the ExxonMobil PxMax technology as one of a number of profit improvement activities focused on increasing paraxylene production capacity without modifying the paraxylene separation process facilities. The xylene product from the PxMax process is highly enriched in paraxylene which allows us to increase overall paraxylene production from the complex by almost 8 percent. The relatively simple retrofit of our existing TDP unit with PxMax offered us a way to quickly increase our paraxylene production and take advantage of the very favorable market conditions," said M. S. Seo, Refining Process Engineering Department General Manager, S-Oil.