Abstract: The aromatic production technology developed by SINOPEC has been successfully applied in large-scale chemical units of 600 kt/a and 1000 kt/a, breaking the long-term technical monopoly of foreign countries, in energy conservation and environmental protection to achieve substantial promotion and improvement. By comparing the energy consumption, raw materials, heat combination, low-temperature heat utilization, and the use of catalysts and adsorbents of the xylene unit in two domestic aromatic combined units, the methods and measures to reduce the energy consumption of the xylene unit were analyzed. The results showed that the heat utilization efficiency could be increased through direct heat transfer between materials by enhancing the combined heat utilization level of the xylene unit; the recovered low-temperature waste heat could generate steam or hot water, which was preferentially used in the compressor power drive medium, the rest was used for self-generation of electricity to minimize or avoid the use of external steam; comprehensive energy consumption of the xylene unit could be effectively reduced, and the benefit of the plant could be increased by using new generation of high performance catalysts and adsorbents.

Key words: aromatics complex, low-temperature heat utilization, energy consumption, heat integration