Method for recovering phenol and acetone from cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10358403-B2
Application number	US-201615751360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2016
Priority date	Dec 23, 2015
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for recovering phenol and acetone from the cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue, by which economic feasibility and efficiency may be improved by utilizing a phenol/acetone purification process used for preparing bisphenol-A.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for recovering phenol and acetone from a cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue, the method comprising:
(A) a step of cracking cumene hydroperoxide which is prepared by an oxidation reaction of cumene, and producing phenol and acetone;
(A-1) a step of separating phenol and acetone;
(B) a step of separating bisphenol-A which is prepared by reacting the separated phenol and acetone, and cracking a bisphenol-A residue in a purge stream comprising unseparated bisphenol-A in an aqueous alkaline solution; and
(C) a step of feeding the reaction product by the cracking reaction of the bisphenol-A residue to the step (A-1).

2. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein the bisphenol-A residue in the purge stream is cracked immediately, or the bisphenol A residue is cracked after the purge stream is further concentrated by discharging and recovering a portion, or entirety, of phenol.

3. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein the separation of phenol and acetone in step (A-1) and step (C) is conducted by the following:
(i) a step of injecting an acid to the cumene hydroperoxide cracking product of step (A-1) and the cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue of step (B) to neutralize and to separate a stream including crude acetone and phenol and an aqueous layer including a portion of acetone;
(ii) a step of recovering by separating and purifying phenol from the stream including crude acetone and phenol;
(iii) a step of recovering acetone by mixing the stream including the crude acetone from which phenol is removed and acetone recovered from the aqueous layer and distilling, discharging hydrocarbons having a lower boiling point than acetone as light materials, and separating hydrocarbons having a higher boiling point than acetone including water; and
(iv) a step of layer separating the hydrocarbons having a higher boiling point than acetone using a basic material and separating waste water and a stream including alpha methyl styrene (AMS), and reusing the waste water by feeding the waste water to the step (i) or the step (B).

4. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 3 , wherein the hydrocarbon in step (iii) comprises phenol.

5. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 3 , wherein the phenol in the hydrocarbon in step (iii) is ionized in an aqueous alkaline solution to form phenolate, and recycled to the step (i) or the step (b) as waste water and reused.

6. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein the aqueous alkaline solution is an aqueous solution including an alkali metal hydroxide selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH and LiOH.

7. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 3 , wherein the cumene hydroperoxide cracking product and the cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue are fed to the neutralization bath in a ratio of 75:25-99:1%, and neutralized.

8. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein an amount of acetone recovered from the cracking reaction product of bisphenol-A residue with respect to an amount of acetone used for preparing bisphenol-A is from 1 to 7%.

9. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein a feed amount of alkali used in step (B) is from 2 to 40 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the purge stream.

10. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 3 , wherein an amount of waste water used in the cracking step of step (B) and an amount of waste water used in the neutralization step of step (i) are fed in a ratio of 20-100%:80-0%.

11. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction of phenol and acetone to prepare bisphenol-A of the step (B) is performed at 40 to 150° C.

12. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 1 , wherein the cracking reaction of the bisphenol-A of the step (B) is performed at 150 to 300° C.

13. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 3 , wherein the neutralization reaction of the step (i) is performed at 20 to 100° C.

14. The method for recovering phenol and acetone according to claim 5 , wherein the aqueous alkaline solution is an aqueous solution including an alkali metal hydroxide selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH and LiOH.

Assignees

• Lg Chemical Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Sang-Beom
• Shin Joon-Ho
• Jeong In-Yong
• Park Jong-Hui
• Keum Myeong-Yeon
• Kim Jeong-Ho
• Kim Tae-Ho

Classifications

• C07C45/78

  Separation; Purification; Stabilisation; Use of additives · CPC title

• C07C37/86

  by treatment giving rise to a chemical modification (chemisorption C07C37/82) · CPC title

• C07C49/08

  Acetone · CPC title

• C07C45/80

  by liquid-liquid treatment · CPC title

• C07C45/82

  by distillation · CPC title