The lab was founded in September, 2000, approved by the Educational Department of Jiangsu Province. Its predecessor was the Key Lab of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation. The achievement of the lab has been highly valued by the expert group from the Educational Department of Jiangsu Province.

   The research of the lab focuses on fine petrochemical engineering with the support of the Sinopec key subject of fine petrochemical engineering and the Jiangsu key subject of chemical engineering and technology. The lab is aiming at being developed to be a nationwide famous center of basic research for application and training center for advanced talents.

   The research interests of the lab include the novel catalytic materials and technologies, synthesis of new fine petrochemical products and new technologies, new reactor and reaction separation coupling technology and biological technology involving petrochemical engineering, etc. Series of modern analytical instruments, such as superconducting NMR spectrometer (500MHz), X-ray diffractometer, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) and electron microscope have been equipped in the lab in a space around 3000 m².

   During the last three years, the lab has been funded for over a hundred projects by governments, including 31 projects granted by the National Natural and Science Fund of China, one project funded by the National Science & Technology Support Program, one project funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and 35 provincial level projects and 24 municipal level projects. Over RMB 30 million of research fund was achieved annually. 16 provincial and 2 national level science and technology progress awards have been received. Over 300 patents have been filed with more than 100 been licensed. Over 500 papers have been published, among which, more than 170 papers were published in internationally renowned journals and more than 200 papers were indexed by SCI, EI or ISTP.