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US 5,783,733 AGranted
Process for manufacture of bisphenol
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorGaylord Michael Kissinger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated process for the preparation and recovery of a bisphenol based on the condensation reaction of a ketone and a phenol in the presence of an ion-exchange resin.
Claims17
A process for making bisphenols which comprises:
- (a) reacting a phenol with a ketone in the presence of an ion exchange resin catalyst to produce bisphenol;
- (b) separating unreacted phenol from the bisphenol produced in step (a) in a phenol removal unit;
- (c) extracting water and acetone from said separated phenol in a dehydration unit to obtain a dried phenol and returning the dried phenol to said reactor;
- (d) separating the extracted water from the extracted acetone of step (c) in a waste water purification unit and returning said acetone to said reactor and transferring said water to a water discharge facility;
- (e) separating phenol, isomers, and tar from said bisphenol obtained from the phenol removal unit in a melt crystallizer by fractional melt crystallization in a falling film dynamic crystallizer;
- (f) transferring recycle residue which comprises bisphenol, phenol, tars, and isomers from said melt crystallizer to a recycle recovery unit;
- (g) recovering bisphenol from the recycle recovery unit and returning recovered bisphenol to the melt crystallizer;
- (h) transferring residual phenol, tars and isomers from said recycle recovery unit to a tar/isomer recovery unit;
- (i) recovering phenol from the tar/isomer cracker wherein the phenol is returned to the reactor and the tar is disposed of;
- and
- (j) recovering in a bisphenol recovery unit purified bisphenol from the melt crystallizer.
8 more elements
A process for making bisphenols consisting essentially of:
- (a) reacting a phenol with a ketone in the presence of an ion exchange resin catalyst to produce bisphenol;
- (b) separating unreacted phenol from the bisphenol produced in step (a) in a phenol removal unit;
- (c) extracting water and acetone from said separated phenol in a mother liquor dryer unit to obtain a dried phenol and returning the dried phenol to said reactor;
- (d) separating the extracted water from the extracted acetone of step (c) in a waste water purification unit and returning said acetone to said reactor and transferring said water to a water discharge facility;
- (e) separating phenol, isomers, and tar from said bisphenol obtained from the phenol removal unit in a melt crystallizer by fractional melt crystallization in a falling film dynamic crystallizer;
- (f) transferring recycle residue which comprises bisphenol, phenol, tars, and isomers from said melt crystallizer to a recycle recovery unit;
- (g) recovering bisphenol from the recycle recovery unit and returning recovered bisphenol to the melt crystallizer;
- (h) transferring residual phenol, tars and isomers from said recycle recovery unit to a tar/isomer recovery unit;
- (i) recovering phenol from the tar/isomer cracker wherein the phenol is returned to the reactor and the tar is disposed of;
- and
- (j) recovering in a bisphenol recovery unit purified bisphenol from the melt crystallizer.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.