Process for producing phenolic compounds

In a process for producing a phenolic compound which comprises

• catalytically cleaving an aralkyl hydroperoxide with an acid to form a phenolic compound,
• removing the acid and by-products or impurities having lower and/or higher boiling points than the resulting phenolic compound to recover a crude phenolic compound,
• feeding the recovered crude phenolic compound to an extractive distillation column and extractively distilling it in the presence of a polyalkylene glycol or its ether having a higher boiling point than the phenolic compound to separate the phenolic compound and the polyalkylene glycol or its ether as a bottom fraction, and
• separating the bottom fraction into the phenolic compound and the polyalkylene glycol or its ether;
• the improvement wherein
• (a) carrying out the extractive distillation under such conditions that the phenolic compound comes out from the top of the column in an amount of 0.3 to 30% by weight based on the total weight of the phenolic compound in the crude phenolic compound fed to the extractive distillation column, and
• (b) subjecting the phenol compound-containing overhead fraction from the extractive distillation column to steam distillation and the resulting bottom fraction containing the phenolic compound is recycled to any step after said step of catalytic acid cleavage and before said step of extractive distillation.