Recovery of acetone and phenol from cumene hydroperoxide decomposition product

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR RECOVERING SUBSTANTIALLY PURE PHENOL AND SUBSTANTIALLY PURE ACETONE FROM THE REACTION PRODUCT MIXTURE PRODUCED BY CATALYTICALLY DECOMPOSING CUMENE HYDROPEROXIDE CONCENTRATE WHICH IS SUBSTANTIALLY FREE OF CUMENE IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ACID CATALYST, WHICH COMPRISES NEUTRALIZING THE REACTION PRODUCT AND INTIMATELY MIXING IT WITH 0.25 TO 3 TIMES ITS WEIGHT OF WATER IN A NEUTRALIZING AND WASHING ZONE, SETTLING THE RESULTANT MIXTURE TO SEPARATE A WATER AND AN ORGANIC PHASE, FRACTIONALLY DISTILLING THE WATER PHASE TO SEPARATE AN OVERHEAD FRACTION CONSISTING PREDOMINANTLY OF WATER AND CONTAINING MINOR PROPORTIONS OF PHENOL AND ACETONE AND A BOTTOMS FRACTION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF WATER CONTAINING IN SOLUTION SALTS FORMED DURING NEUTRALIZATION, RETURNING THE OVERHEAD FRACTION TO THE WASHING AND NEUTRALIZING ZONE AND REJECTING THE BOTTOMS FRACTION FROM THE SYSTEM, FRACTIONALLY DISTILLING THE ORGANIC PHASE TO SEPARATE ON OVERHEAD FRACTION CONSISTING PREDOMINANTLY OF ACETONE AND HAVING A SUBSTANTIAL CONTENT OF WATER AND A BOTTOMS FRACTION CONSISTING PREDOMINANTLY OF PHENOL, FRACTIONALLY DISTILLING THE LAST NAMED OVERHEAD FRACTION TO SEPARATE A FURTHER OVERHEAD FRACTION CONSISTING OF ESSENTIALLY PURE ACETONE AND A BOTTOMS FRACTION CONSISTING PREDOMINANTLY OF WATER AND CONTAINING A MINOR PROPORTION OF PHENOL, MIXING THE BOTTOMS FRACTION WITH FRESH WATER AND SETTLING THE MIXTURE TO SEPARATE AN UPPER ORGANIC PHASE AND A LOWER AQUEOUS PHASE CONTAINING DISSOLVED PHENOL AND PASSING THE AQUEOUS PHASE INTO THE WASHING AND NEUTRALIZING ZONE.