| abstract |
In a process for separating a mixture comprising cyclohexanone and phenol, at least a portion of the mixture is distilled in the presence of a solvent including at least two alcoholic hydroxyl groups attached to non-adjacent saturated carbon atoms and at least one hemiketal defined by the formula (I) or the formula (II): n nwherein R 1 , the same or different at each occurrence, is independently an alkylene group having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms, R 2 is an alkylene group having from 4 to 10 carbon atoms, and R 3 is hydrogen or the following group:n n nand/or an enol-ether derived from the hemiketal defined by the formula (I) or the formula (II), wherein the total concentration of the hemiketal and the enol-ether, expressed in terms of weight percentage on the basis of the total weight of the feed to the distilling step (a), is at least 0.01%. |