GB743004A - Improvements in or relating to removal of salts from acetone-phenol mixtures - Google Patents

Abstract

In the production of phenol and acetone from cumene hydroperoxide by decomposing it in the presence of catalytic amounts of an acid (e.g. an inorganic acid such as sulphuric acid) and neutralizing the acid and acidic organic impurities in the oxidation mixture (e.g. with an aqueous solution of sodium phenolate), the salts produced by the neutralization are removed by adding, before or after the neutralization step, an amount of water sufficient to form, on neutralization and settling, an organic upper phase containing substantially all the phenol and acetone and some water, and an aqueous lower phase containing in solution substantially all the said salts and having a volume equal to at least 5 per cent (but preferably not exceeding about 50 per cent, e.g. about 8-20 per cent) of the organic phase, and separating the two phases. The addition of water and settling are advantageously effected at about 50-150 DEG F. (preferably 70-90 DEG F.). The aqueous phase, or part of it, may be recycled to the decomposition mixture, whilst the organic phase may be subjected to fractional distillation to recover the phenol and acetone. The cumene hydroperoxide may be obtained by oxidizing liquid-phase cumene with an oxygen-containing gas (e.g. air) in the presence of an aqueous alkali to form a mixture of cumene hydroperoxide and unreacted cumene. and removing substantially all of the latter. The decomposition of the cumene hydroperoxide may be effected at about 150-300 DEG F., advantageously in the presence of acetone or other inert diluent miscible with water and with acetone. Suitable arrangements of apparatus are described with the aid of flow sheets, and a detailed example is given. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specifications 626,095, 629,429 and 684,039.