Method of recovering phenol from a BPA production plant and the plant for recovering the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10407370-B2
Application number	US-201615751190-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 9, 2016
Priority date	Sep 11, 2015
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of recovering phenol from a bisphenol A production facility comprises reacting phenol and acetone to produce a bisphenol A stream; separating the bisphenol A stream into a product bisphenol A stream and a purge stream; separating the purge stream into a primary top outlet stream and a primary bottom outlet stream; adding an acid catalyst to the primary bottom outlet stream to form a cracker inlet stream; separating the cracker inlet stream into a cracker top outlet stream and a cracker bottom outlet stream; separating the cracker top outlet stream and the cracker bottom outlet stream into a secondary top outlet stream and a secondary bottom outlet stream; forming a bisphenol A plant phenol recovery stream; combining the bisphenol A plant phenol recovery stream with a stream of a phenol purification plant.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of recovering phenol from a bisphenol A production facility comprising:
reacting phenol and acetone in the presence of a catalyst to produce a bisphenol A stream comprising bisphenol A;
separating the bisphenol A stream into a product bisphenol A stream and a purge stream comprising an unreacted phenol;
separating the purge stream into a primary top outlet stream and a primary bottom outlet stream in a primary distillation column;
adding an acid catalyst via acid stream to the primary bottom outlet stream to form a cracker inlet stream;
separating the cracker inlet stream into a cracker top outlet stream and a cracker bottom outlet stream in an acid-cracker;
separating the cracker top outlet stream and the cracker bottom outlet stream into a secondary top outlet stream and a secondary bottom outlet stream in a secondary recovery column;
forming a bisphenol A plant phenol recovery stream comprising at least a portion of the primary top outlet stream, at least a portion of the cracker top outlet stream, at least a portion of the secondary top outlet stream, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing;
combining the bisphenol A plant phenol recovery stream with a stream of a phenol purification plant; wherein the a phenol purification plant comprises a preheater, a splitter column, a crude phenol column, and a hydro-extractor column; wherein the bisphenol A plant phenol recovery stream is combined with a preheater inlet stream in fluid communication with the preheater, a splitter inlet stream in fluid communication with the splitter column, a splitter bottom outlet stream in fluid communication with the crude phenol column, a crude top outlet stream in fluid communication with the hydro-extractor column, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining comprises combining the bisphenol-A plant phenol recovery stream with the splitter bottom outlet stream.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining comprises combining the bisphenol-A plant phenol recovery stream with crude top outlet stream.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a cracker recycle stream from the acid-cracker to the primary distillation column.

Assignees

• Sabic Global Technologies Bv

Inventors

• Nelson Mark Erik
• Youssef Ahmed Abouelfetouh
• Baro Karl Aaron
• Eijsbouts Paulus Johannes Maria

Classifications

• C07C37/685 Primary

  Processes comprising at least two steps in series · CPC title

• C07C37/82

  by solid-liquid treatment; by chemisorption · CPC title

• C07C37/20

  using aldehydes or ketones · CPC title

• C07C39/16

  Bis-(hydroxyphenyl) alkanes; Tris-(hydroxyphenyl)alkanes · CPC title

• C07C39/06

  Alkylated phenols · CPC title