Nippon Petrochemicals Company, Limited

Kazuharu Suyama

Yasuo Matsumura

Tomohiro Konishi

Noboru Kiyota

Yoshihisa Inomata

Saisuke Watanabe

An inexpensive method for producing trimethylhydroquinone free from the problem of the disposal of waste catalyst, which method comprises the steps of: (1) reacting isophorone in the presence of an acid catalyst and recovering &bgr;-isophorone by distiiulation, (2) oxidizing the &bgr;-isophorone in the presence of amorphous carbon and a base to obtain 4-oxoisophorone, (3) reacting the 4-oxoisophorone with an acid anhydride in a liquid phase or with a carboxylic acid in a vapor phase in the presence of a solid acid catalyst to obtain trimethylhydroquinones, and (4) hydrolyzing the trimethylhydroquinones to obtaining trimethylhydroquinone.

Method for producing trimethylhydroquinone

Adipic acid diester is caused to react with alkoxide M(OR) , wherein R is an alkyl group and M is an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal, the reaction product is successively subjected either to coupling with halomethylstyrene followed by carbonylation, or to coupling with 2-(halomethylphenyl)propionic acid or its ester followed by decarboxylation and hydrolysis. With this process, it is possible to produce more efficiently a specific 2-substituted propionic acid, loxoprofen.

Process for producing 2-substituted propionic acid

An inexpensive method for producing trimethylhydroquinone free from the problem of the disposal of waste catalyst, which method comprises the steps of: (1) reacting isophorone in the presence of an acid catalyst and recovering &bgr;-isophorone by distillation, (2) oxidizing the &bgr;-isophorone in the presence of amorphous carbon and a base to obtain 4-oxoisophorone, (3) reacting the 4-oxoisophorone with an acid anhydride in a liquid phase or with a carboxylic acid in a vapor phase in the presence of a solid acid catalyst to obtain trimethylhydroquinones, and (4) hydrolyzing the trimethylhydroquinones to obtaining trimethylhydroquinone.

A mono-olefin hydrocarbon and/or a di-olefin hydrocarbon represented by the following general formula (3) is selectively produced by dehydrogenating or oxidative-dehydrogenating a mixture of any one of hydrocarbons among the hydrocarbons represented by the following general formula (1) and any one of hydrocarbons among the hydrocarbons represented by the following general formula (2), followed by distillation;

Process for producing dehydrogenated compounds of m-ethyldiphenylalkane

A method for producing cyclopentadienes which comprises the step of cyclodehydration of an unsaturated carbonyl compound having a specific chemical structure in a vapor phase in the presence of a specific solid acid catalyst. The cyclopentadienes of the invention can be produced in a high yield from inexpensive starting materials through a simplified reaction process and are useful as intermediate compounds for organic synthesis.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kazuharu Suyama