Structure and energy optimization of the phenol and acetone separation process using reaction mixture components as entrainers

Abstract

Based on the analysis of a phenol and acetone recovery flowsheet and phase equilibria of reactionmixture components, isopropylbenzene has been proposed for use as an entrainer, which is feedstock for the manufacture of the aforementioned products. By structure optimization, the number of recovery steps has been decreased from eight to five and power consumption has been substantially reduced.