This article focuses on the study of the promoting influence of CO2 on the liquid phase oxidation of p-xylene (PX) under industrial reaction conditions. Using a continuous experimental setup

the influences of gas-phase CO2 content and temperature on PX oxidation were investigated

and the processes were simulated by means of reactor modeling. It was found that CO2 could significantly increase the PX conversion and the yield of the primary product in the reactor outlet and reduce the content of the main impurities in liquid phase

when the CO2 concentration is between 40%—60%. When temperatures are higher than 192℃

the effect of temperature on the reactor outlet index is noticeably higher than that at lower temperatures. The mixed-flow reactor model successfully predicted the main index changes of reactor outlet with the residence time at different CO2 contents and temperatures

such as the PX conversion

yield of the primary product

and the contents of major impurities in the liquid phase. Hopefully

the results of this work could provide new ideas for enhancing efficiency and energy saving of current industrial PX oxidation processes.