2-Methylanaphthalene is an important organic chemical raw material with a wide application range. With the rapid development of fine chemical industry, separating 2-methyl naphthalene from washing oil has received attention. From the perspective of oil washing processing, the technical characteristics of various separation and purification 2-methylnaphthalene techniques from wash oil were discussed. The industrial status and technological characteristics of 2-methylnaphthalene production at home and abroad were introduced, and the development direction of 2-methylnaphthalene separation and purification technologies and industrialization were prospected. Wash oil′s components form many azeotrope and eutectic mixture. It is difficult to separate and refine 2-methylnaphthalene products with high purity from wash oil by a single process of separating and refining method. At present, the separation and purification techniques of 2-methylnaphthalene are the combination of distillation, azeotropic distillation, alkylation, acid-alkaline washing, isomerization, solvent recrystallization, solvent extraction, freezing crystallization and so on. The washing-distillation-crystallization method is mature and reliable, which is the most widely used 2-methylnaphthalene production technology in industry. However, acid and alkali washing has environmental pollution, equipment corrosion and other problems. The process of washing and multistage distillation is simple and the production efficiency is high, but the purity of the product needs to be improved. The combination of distillation and azeotropic distillation is green, low cost and low indole content. It is the development direction of separating and refining 2-methyl naphthalene in the future. The method of combining chemical reaction with distillation crystallization is high in yield and purity, but the special reactor and catalyst needed for chemical reaction increase the production cost. Compared with similar enterprises abroad, domestic enterprises producing 2-methylnaphthalene have gaps in product type and purity, energy consumption, environmental protection and so on. Green environmental protection and high efficiency energy saving are the future development trends of oil washing processing enterprises. It is an effective means to improve the economic and social benefits of coal chemical enterprises to strengthen the development of new technologies and new processes, improve the product yield and purity, and solve the technical problems of industrialization and scale in 2-methyl naphthalene separation and refining. The development of the green separation process of 2-methyl naphthalene in oil washing processing to improve the coupling level of various separation and refining methods will not only meet the environmental protection requirements of "energy saving and low carbon" in the chemical production process, but also is the development direction of the future oil washing deep processing technology.