Alliedsignal Inc.

Laszlo J Balint, Deceased

Lamberto Crescentini

Chong H Chan

Everett H Hinton, Jr

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.

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Chester, VA, United States of America

Laszlo J Balint, Deceased