China's Xuyang Group Launches First Domestically Developed Amino Alcohol Plant, Becomes World's Second Industrial-Scale Producer

Xuyang Group, a leading Chinese chemical company, has successfully commissioned its 5,000-ton-per-year amino alcohol production facility in its Dingzhou Industrial Park, Hebei Province. The plant, independently developed with proprietary technology, marks China's first industrial-scale amino alcohol production line and positions Xuyang as the world's second company capable of manufacturing amino alcohol on an industrial scale.

"This project breaks foreign technological monopolies with a globally innovative, non-nitrification green production process - enabling domestic manufacturing and import substitution," said Wang Huadong, General Manager of Xuyang Dingzhou Industrial Park. Led by a core team of PhD researchers, Xuyang's R&D team overcame critical technical challenges through lab-scale trials, pilot tests, and process development, culminating in this breakthrough industrial technology. The success is seen as a key milestone for China's high-end fine chemical sector.

Amino alcohol - specifically 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) - is a high-performance additive widely used in electronics, new energy, cosmetics, advanced coatings, precision metal cutting, pharmaceuticals, agrochemical intermediates, and carbon capture. Its production process is notoriously complex and demands stringent reaction conditions. Depending on purity, the market price ranges from RMB 60 to 150 per kilogram, reflecting its high value-add.

Xuyang's newly commissioned process features mild reaction conditions, minimal by-products, and enhanced safety compared to traditional nitration routes. The technology also allows flexible adjustment between primary and secondary products in response to market demand, significantly improving product selectivity and overall process economics.

Prior to commercialization, Xuyang had successfully operated a pilot plant, with products exported to China, the United States, India, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, and South Korea - laying a strong foundation for the decision to scale up to a 5,000-ton facility.

Founded in 1995, Xuyang Group has built its business on vertical integration from coking, developing three major chemical value chains: carbon materials, aromatics, and alcohol-ether derivatives. With an annual chemical production capacity of 5.9 million tons and another 2.88 million tons under construction, Xuyang operates across industrial parks in Hebei, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia.

Xuyang is recognized as the world's largest crude benzene processor, the second-largest high-temperature coal tar processor, China's top methanol producer from coke oven gas, and the country's largest phthalic anhydride producer from industrial naphthalene.

In a notable milestone in 2022, Xuyang's Cangzhou facility successfully commissioned its second-phase caprolactam project with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year, bringing its total caprolactam capacity to 750,000 tons per year - further cementing its leadership in China's chemical industry.