Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited

Hirooki Nagaoka

Kazuo Kimura

Mitsuhisa Tamura

Masahiro Usui

Kiyoshi Iwanaga

Toshio Nakayama

Masaaki Toma

Hiroyuki Umida

Hiroshi Nishida

Shouji Hamada

sec-Butylbenzene hydroperoxide obtained by oxidizing sec-butylbenzene is decomposed into phenol and methyl ethyl ketone, a resulting liquid comprising a methyl ethyl ketone as the main component is washed with an aqueous alkali solution to remove carboxylic acids, carboxylic acid esters, unsaturated ketones, and aldehydes, and the washed liquid is further subjected to neutralization, dehydration, and distillation. A methyl ethyl ketone can be obtained which has a high quality with regard to purity and potassium permanganate fading.

Process for producing phenol and methyl ethyl ketone

Any one material selected from (A) sec-butylbenzene substantially free from ethyl hydroperoxide, carboxylic acids and phenol, (B) sec-butylbenzene substantially free from styrenes and (C) sec-butylbenzene substantially free from methylbenzyl alcohol is oxidized to obtain sec-butylbenzene hydroperoxide, which is then decomposed to obtain phenol and methyl ethyl ketone.

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Minoo, Japan

Hirooki Nagaoka