Technology

A high-yield process to produce high-purity phenol and acetone from cumene with optional byproduct recovery of alpha methylstyrene (AMS) and acetophenone (AP).

• Cumene is oxidized with air at high efficiency (+95%) to produce cumene hydroperoxide (CHP).
• CHP is concentrated and cleaved under high-yield conditions (+99%) to phenol and acetone in the presence of an acid catalyst.
• The cleavage mixture is neutralized to remove the catalyst and fractionated to produce high-purity phenol and acetone.
• The fractionation train can be designed to:
  • either separate alpha methyl styrene (AMS) as a pure co-product,
  • or hydrogenate AMS to cumene for recycle to oxidation.
• The heavy ends can be used as fuel or minimized by recovering co-product acetophenone (AP).
• The aqueous effluent is pretreated to allow efficient biotreatment of plant wastewater.

With AMS hydrogenation, 1.31 tonnes of cumene will produce 1 tonne of phenol and 0.616 tonnes of acetone.

The KBR process is claimed to produce the highest purity phenol in the industry with total cresols typically less than 30 ppm and total organic impurities less than 25 ppm.

References

1. bee, 11^th Jun 2018, Phenol Process by Kellogg Brown & Root, Hydrocarbon Process Engineer.
2. Gulf Oil & Gas, KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root), KBR Phenol Process Technology Licensing.