Process for producing laurolactam

Abstract

Provided is a process for efficiently producing laurolactam by simple steps from cyclododecanone and hydroxylamine. This production process comprises the steps of: (a) reacting cyclododecanone with hydroxylamine in an aqueous solution in the presence of an oxime-formation solvent to produce cyclododecanone oxime; (b) separating the reaction mixture obtained after the oxime-forming step into an oil and an aqueous phases and collecting a solution of cyclododecanone oxime of the oil phase; (c) removing a part or all of the oxime-formation solvent and dissolved water from the solution of cyclododecanone oxime which is collected as an oil phase in the oil/aqueous phase separation step, whereby preparing a solution containing a rearrangement solvent to be used in a rearrangement reaction in a later step and the cyclododecanone oxime; (d) producing laurolactam from cyclododecanone oxime by rearrangement reaction using an aromatic-ring containing compound as a rearrangement catalyst; and (e) separating and removing the rearrangement solvent and the rearrangement catalyst from the reaction mixture after the rearrangement step, and purifying the laurolactam.