Background. It is important to distinguish the classification of lung adenocarcinoma. A radiomics model was developed to predict tumor invasiveness using quantitative and qualitative features of pulmonary ground-glass nodules (GGNs) on chest CT. Materials and Methods. A total of 599 GGNs [including 202 preinvasive lesions and 397 minimally invasive and invasive pulmonary adenocarcinomas (IPAs)] were evaluated using univariate, multivariate, and logistic regression analyses to construct a radiomics model that predicted invasiveness of GGNs. In primary cohort (comprised of patients scanned from August 2012 to July 2016), preinvasive lesions were distinguished from IPAs based on pure or mixed density (PM), lesion shape, lobulated border, and pleural retraction and 35 other quantitative parameters (P <0.05) using univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that PM, lobulated border, pleural retraction, age, and fractal dimension (FD) were significantly different between preinvasive lesions and IPAs. After logistic regression analysis, PM and FD were used to develop a prediction nomogram. The validation cohort was comprised of patients scanned after Jan 2016. Results. The model showed good discrimination between preinvasive lesions and IPAs with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.76 [95% CI: 0.71 to 0.80] in ROC curve for the primary cohort. The nomogram also demonstrated good discrimination in the validation cohort with an AUC of 0.79 [95% CI: 0.71 to 0.88]. Conclusions. For GGNs, PM, lobulated border, pleural retraction, age, and FD were features discriminating preinvasive lesions from IPAs. The radiomics model based upon PM and FD may predict the invasiveness of pulmonary adenocarcinomas appearing as GGNs.

The coal to ethylene glycol (CTEG) process has drawn much attention due to the serious conflict between supply and demand of ethylene glycol in China. However, it is inevitably accompanied by the problem of high CO₂ emissions. Carbon capture is one of the most promising potential effective ways to address this issue. However, the CTEG process, integrated with carbon capture technology, will lead to energy and economic penalties. Thus, a comprehensive evaluation of CTEG process with different CO₂ capture technologies is urgently needed. This study analyzed the technoeconomic performance of four CO₂ capture alternatives for the CTEG process: Rectisol, mono-ethanol amine (MEA), chilled ammonia process (CAP) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) technologies. Results show the energy consumption of CO₂ capture of the Rectisol process is the lowest, 1.88 GJ/tCO₂, followed by the DMC process, 2.10 GJ/tCO₂, the CAP process, 3.64 GJ/tCO₂, and the MEA process, 5.20 GJ/tCO₂. The CO₂ capture cost of the Rectisol process is lowest, CNY 169.5/tCO₂, followed by the DMC process, CNY 193.2/tCO₂, the CAP process CNY 232.6/tCO₂, and the MEA process CNY 250.5/tCO₂. As the Rectisol technology has the best comprehensive performance, it is the best option for CTEG industry in comparison with the MEA, CAP, and DMC technologies.

Toluene methylation using methanol offers a high potential molecular engineering process to produce p-xylene (PX) based on shape-selective catalysts. To further improve the process economics, a novel short process was proposed by reducing the high-energy consumption separation of xylene isomers in existing processes since the PX selectivity of the xylene isomers can be enhanced more than the industrial product quality of 99.7%. The PX selectivity intensification was achieved as a result of decreased contact time by considering factors such as the feed ratio, diluents, temperature, and pressure in a toluene methylation reactor. This proposed short process indicated that the reactor effluent could be purified only through the two conventional distillation towers by removing the methanol recovery and separation of xylene isomers. The raw material utilization, energy consumption, and economic data were also analyzed for the six contrastive cases. The short process using catalyst Si–Mg–P–La/ZSM-5 exhibited the highest effective utilization rates of 96.27 and 95.50% for toluene and methanol, respectively. The short process also showed a good economic value in terms of capital investment and operating costs due to the multistage reactor without benzene byproducts. Thus, the obtained total annual cost (TAC) value of 13 848.1 k$·year^–1 was 68.9 and 87.9% of the two existing processes.

High-efficiency production of xylene/trimethylbenzene from benzene/toluene with methanol is a potential way to promote the implementation on the coupled cycle development strategy of petrochemical and coal chemical industry and optimize the resource structure. At the same time, relying on the innovation of catalytic new materials, physical chemistry, intelligent capture technology, process engineering, and other principles and methods, p-xylene (PX) and trimethylbenzene (TMB) with higher added value were prepared by C_6-8~arene methylation, which could elevate the level of methylation field and improve the competitiveness of the industry. This paper focuses on the one-step methylation reaction of benzene with methanol or toluene with methanol to obtain high-purity p-xylene (BM-PX/TM-PX), and the one-step methylation reaction of xylene with methanol to obtain mesitylene (XM-TMB). The methylation reaction mechanism and the preparation strategy of a high-performance catalyst were reviewed. The high selectivity of PX obtained by precisely controlling the pore size and acid site distribution of zeolites was emphasized. Meanwhile, the current research progress of TMB, the kinetic/thermodynamics of the BM-PX/TM-PX, and XM-TMB methylation reaction were described. Based on a literature research and the conclusion of our research group, the mechanism of methylation reaction process was expounded. Finally, the new research direction of catalysts used and reaction process in methylation reaction were prospected in order to guide the rapid development of this field.