Method for the manufacture of bisphenol a

Method for the continuous manufacture of bisphenol A comprising

• feeding one or more feed streams comprising phenol and acetone to a reactor and reacting said acetone and phenol in the presence of an ion-exchange resin catalyst thereby forming a product stream comprising bisphenol A, phenol, acetone, water and by-products,
• crystallising bisphenol A and/or bisphenol A/phenol adduct crystals from said product stream in one or more crystallisation units thereby forming a slurry consisting of said crystals and a mother liquor,
• separating the mother liquor from the crystals in one or more solid-liquid separation units,
• heating the mother liquor in a heat recovery unit and feeding the heated mother liquor to a distillation column,
• separating the mother liquor in the distillation column thereby forming a bottom stream comprising phenol and optionally a minor amount of water and a top stream comprising water and optionally a minor amount of phenol, and
• cooling the bottom stream in said heat recovery unit,
• wherein in the heat recovery unit heat is exchanged between the bottom stream and the mother liquor liquor