GS CALTEX BUSINESS — CHAPTER 02
3 million tons a year of world-scale aromatics —
the second chapter, from naphtha to materials.
Oil is more than fuel. Hidden inside the naphtha that refining set aside are clothes, bottles, and cars.
ORIGIN
The name literally means "the fragrant family". When 19th-century chemists first classified this group, many of the compounds they found really did smell pleasant — so they became the aromatics.
Today the name has nothing to do with smell. As chemistry deepened, it came to mean ring compounds made unusually stable by evenly shared electrons — like benzene. A name that began with fragrance became a name for structure, and that stable hexagonal ring is where this story begins.
01 — BENZENE RING
Six carbons joined in a regular hexagon: benzene. This colorless liquid is the starting material for resins, nylon and detergents. GS Caltex produces 1.08 million tons of high-purity benzene a year for customers worldwide.
01 — TOLUENE
One methyl group (CH₃) on the ring — that small difference makes solvents for paint and ink, and the feedstock for polyurethane (TDI). 200,000 tons a year.
01 — PARA-XYLENE
The starting point of clothing and PET. Two methyl groups in para position give us TPA — the raw material of polyester fiber and PET bottles. At 1.35 million tons a year, it leads the portfolio.
WORLD-SCALE PARA-XYLENE02 — CAPACITY
Supplied as the base material for TPA — the raw material of polyester fiber and PET.
The six-carbon hexagon itself — supplied worldwide as a petrochemical feedstock.
A blend of ortho, meta and para isomers — used as solvent and as para-xylene feedstock.
Benzene plus one methyl group — a solvent for paint, ink and adhesives, and TDI feedstock.
03 — INTO EVERYDAY LIFE
The story of the hexagonal ring continues in the next chapter — where naphtha and LPG become ethylene and propylene: the world of olefins.