Production and purification of phenol: hydroxyacetone removal by hydrotalcite

A process for producing phenol comprising the steps of:

• converting cumene to produce a crude phenol which may contain carbonyl-type impurities;
• reacting the crude phenol and any carbonyl-type impurities in the presence of a catalyst at a catalytically-effective temperature to produce a reaction product that contains phenol and may contain high-boiling derivatives of the carbonyl-type impurities and/or a small amount of 2MBF, said catalyst comprising a layered double hydroxide composition of the formula:
• [MII1-xMIIIx(OH)2](An−)
• or a hydrate thereof, wherein MII is a divalent metal cation, MIII is a trivalent metal cation, A is an interlayer anion of charge n−, and x is from 0.12 to 0.8.

A facility for converting cumene to phenol, said facility comprising:

• a vessel containing cumene;
• a first reaction vessel connected to the vessel containing cumene, wherein in said first reaction vessel the cumene is oxidized to form a cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) mixture;
• a second reaction vessel connected to the first reaction vessel, wherein in said second reaction vessel the CHP mixture is cleaved to form a crude cleavage mass mixture;
• a third reaction vessel connected to the second reaction vessel, wherein in the third reaction vessel a base is added to the crude cleavage mass mixture to form a neutralized crude cleavage mass mixture;
• a separation section connected to receive the neutralized crude cleavage mass mixture, wherein the neutralized crude cleavage mass mixture is separated into streams, wherein one of those streams is a crude phenol stream (CPS) comprising phenol and which may contain carbonyl-type impurities;
• a temperature control mechanism connected to receive the CPS;
• and
• a catalyst bed connected to receive the CPS, after it passes through the temperature control mechanism, and to produce a purified phenol-containing product, said catalyst bed comprising a layered double hydroxide composition of the formula:
• [MII1-xMIIIx(OH)2](An−)
• or a hydrate thereof, wherein MII is a divalent metal cation, MIII is a trivalent metal cation, A is an interlayer anion of charge n−, and x is from 0.12 to 0.8.