Alliedsignal Inc.

Allied Corporation

Everett H Hinton, Jr

Lamberto Crescentini

Chong H Chan

Laszlo J Balint, Deceased

A process for separating phenol obtained by the decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide from high boiling impurities, includes the following steps: a) feeding phenol rectification bottoms comprising phenol, acetophenone, cumylphenol, alpha-methylstyrene dimers and high boiler residues to a first phenol freeing distillation column A; b) feeding concentrated bottoms with substantially reduced phenol content from column A to a second residue concentration distillation column B; c) withdrawing a stream rich in compounds boiling between phenol and residue, particularly cumylphenol, from said column B from a point below the feed and returning at least a portion of said stream to said column A at a point above the feed; d) recovering overheads from column A comprising at least 95 weight percent phenol; and e) recovering acetophenone-rich overheads from column B comprising at least 70 weight percent acetophenone.

Removal of acetophenone from phenol purification residues

This invention is a process for purifying crude acetone obtained by cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide, said crude acetone containing aldehyde impurities and appreciable amounts of unreacted cumene, by fractionally distilling the acetone in a multiple plate distillation column, said process comprising: continuously feeding crude acetone; continuously feeding a dilute aqueous solution of an alkaline material at a point above the crude acetone feed point; and controlling the temperature profile of the column by adjusting the amount of liquid acetone removed in step (c) to maintain a preselected temperature on a plate in the region between the crude acetone feed point and the alkaline material feed point.

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Chester, VA, United States of America

Everett H Hinton, Jr