From Solvent to Feedstock: Industrial Uses

Beyond the paint shop, xylol (xylene) is a heavy-duty industrial chemical with two very different careers: as a solvent that dissolves and carries other materials, and as a raw material that gets built into plastics. Most people meet it in the first role, but by volume the second is the giant.

As an industrial solvent, xylene turns up across many sectors:

• Coatings and inks: thinning and carrying resins in industrial paints, printing inks, and lacquers.
• Rubber and adhesives: as a processing solvent and a carrier in adhesive formulations.
• Metal and equipment cleaning: degreasing parts and stripping residues before finishing.
• Agrochemicals: as a carrier solvent in some pesticide and herbicide formulations.
• Laboratories: as a clearing agent in tissue processing and histology.
• Fuel: as a blending component that raises the octane rating of gasoline.

The larger story, though, is chemical feedstock. One isomer, para-xylene, is oxidized to make terephthalic acid, the building block of PET, the polyester used in drink bottles, food packaging, and clothing fiber. That single chain consumes the majority of the world’s xylene and is the reason producers run enormous plants to separate para-xylene from the mixed stream. So while a painter reaches for xylol by the quart, the petrochemical industry moves it by the tanker, and most of it never touches a brush. It ends up as plastic.