【Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Equipment】Industrialization of Shida’s “Ionic Liquid-Catalyzed Tetraalkylation Technology (ILA)” from 1865 to 2013

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Safety first. Prevention first – let’s give praise and support to the achievements in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment. **********************【Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】A continuously updated summary post; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum) ***************** Shihua University’s “ion liquid-catalyzed carbon tetraalkylation technology (ILA)” has been successfully put into industrial use. Publication date: October 29, 2013. In October 2013, the industrial production facility for “120,000 tons per year of ion liquid-catalyzed carbon tetraalkylation technology (ILA)”, developed by the Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil at China University of Petroleum and constructed with investment from Shandong Deyang Chemical Co., Ltd., was completed and brought online successfully on its first attempt. On September 29, Shandong Deyang Chemical Co., Ltd. held a ceremony to mark the commissioning of the project, with Xu Chunming, vice president of China University of Petroleum, attending the event. “The \"120,000 tons/year ionic liquid-catalyzed carbon tetra-alkylation technology (ILA)\” is a new type of alkylation process that uses ionic liquids as catalysts, developed over many years by a research team led by Professors Xu Chunming and Liu Zhichang from the Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil. This facility is the world’s first industrial-scale unit for ionic liquid alkylation. The research on this technology has been funded successively by the **National Natural Science Foundation of China, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing Municipal Education Commission, and Shell Oil Company**, and it has resulted in multiple domestic and international patent approvals in China, the United States, France, and Japan. 　　Currently, industrial carbon tetraalkylation plants use concentrated sulfuric acid or hydrofluoric acid as catalysts, which leads to severe equipment corrosion as well as potential environmental pollution and health hazards. Therefore, the development of new environmentally friendly alkylation production technologies has always been a focus of attention for the global refining industry. As an emerging catalytic material, ionic liquids possess advantages such as minimal volatility, low corrosivity, and environmental friendliness, making them a topic of intense research interest today. The **Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil** at China University of Petroleum has successfully developed composite ionic liquid catalysts with high activity and selectivity, along with a corresponding tetraalkylation process. These ionic liquid catalysts can be recycled, and the alkylated oil products produced contain no sulfur, olefins, or aromatics. The research-based octane number (RON) reaches over 97, making them the ideal components for producing high-octane, clean gasoline. The successful application of ionic liquid alkylation technology has overcome many of the shortcomings of traditional alkylation processes using concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid, providing a new solution for the purification and comprehensive quality improvement of commercial gasoline in China.