Bp Chemicals International Limited

Bertram Yeomans

John Reginald Walton

Isophorone is produced by feeding a mixture comprising 65 to 85% w/w acetone, 35 to 15% w/w water and 0.7 to 0.3% w/w potassium hydroxide to an intermediate point in a reaction column, operating at elevated pressure, at such a rate as to maintain an acetone/water azeotrope reflux having a potassium hydroxide concentration in the range 300 to 1000 ppm within the reaction column, passing from the bottom of the column a fraction containing isophorone to a hydrolysis column also operating at elevated pressure wherein acetone is separated overhead and returned to the reaction column, removing the fraction containing water, isophorone and high-boiling compounds from the bottom of the hydrolysis column, and thereafter recovering the isophorone from the bottom fraction.

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Hessle, United Kingdom

Bertram Yeomans