GB410331A - Manufacture of phenol and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

In the manufacture of phenol by reaction of benzene with hydrogen chloride and oxygen and hydrolysis of the chlorbenzene with steam in the vapour phase, the hydrogen chloride from the second reaction is recovered by the process described in Specification 387,832, for example, by treatment of the reaction products with water, and is used, after extracting with benzene, for producing more chlorbenzene. A fan 1 supplies a mixture of chlorbenzene and water vapour at 100 DEG C. to a heat recuperator 2 where it is heated to 400 DEG C. by vapours leaving the contact furnace 4, serving for the hydrolysis, at about 500 DEG C. After heating to 500 DEG C. in a preheater 3 the mixture passes to the furnace 4, and the exit vapours are cooled to 200 DEG C. and pass to a tower 5 where the hydrogen chloride is washed out with water and chlorbenzene, the circulating vapours being enriched in these constituents. They are then led to a tower 6, where phenol is removed by washing with hot water, and are returned to the cycle, a small quantity, however, passing to a condenser 7. Hydrogen chloride leaving tower 5 is led to a washing tower 8 and thence to a vaporizer 9. The phenol solution from tower 6 passes to a tower 10 and is pumped back. Towers 8 and 10 are supplied with benzene from tank 11 <PICT:0410331/IV/1> which extracts phenol, the solution passing to a still 12 where the benzene is distilled, preheated at 3 and, mixed with hydrogen chloride and air, passes to a contact furnace 13. The chlorbenzene produced is recovered in a con-densing column 14 and returned to tower 5, unchanged benzene being condensed at 15 and fed to tank 11. Specification 362,817 also is referred to.