| abstract |
PURPOSE: To recover valuable substances such as cumene, phenol, etc., from a phenol distillation residue produced as a by-product of a process for the production of phenol and acetone by the oxidation of cumene with oxygen, by distilling the distillation residue, recovering a specific amount of distillate and thermally decomposing the distillate in the presence of a catalyst. n CONSTITUTION: Cumene is oxidized with oxygen to synthesize cumene hydroperoxide, which is decomposed with an acid to obtain a reaction mixture. Valuable substances such as cumene, phenol, etc., are recovered from a phenol distillation residue left after the separation of phenol and acetone from the reaction mixture by distillation. In the above process, the phenol distillation residue is distilled to recover 70W97wt% of the residue as distillate, which is thermally decomposed at 200W310°C in the presence of a catalyst (especially preferably alumina-based catalyst or silica-alumina catalyst) to recover the valuable substances. The recovery of the valuable substances can be maintained at a high level even after he thermal decomposition for a long period, the thermal decomposition time can be shortened and the apparatus can be miniaturized. n COPYRIGHT: (C)1988,JPO&Japio |