Process for the manufacture of lactams

Abstract

In a process for manufacturing a lactam which includes rearranging a cycloalkanone-oxime with sulfuric acid to form said lactam, neutralizing the rearrangement mixture with ammonia to form ammonium sulfate, and separating said lactam and said ammonium sulfate, the improvement which comprises: A. forming the ammonium sulfate into finely divided particles; B. burning the particles at a temperature of 850.degree. - 1250.degree. C. to form an SO.sub.2 -containing gas; C. oxidizing the SO.sub.2 -containing gas to form sulfuric acid; and D. recycling at least a portion of the sulfuric acid to the cycloalkanone-oxime rearrangement step. No external source of sulfuric acid is required. A portion of the SO.sub.2 -containing gas can be used for the manufacture of hydroxylamine sulfate, in which case no external source of SO.sub.2 need be required.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.