BPA PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present disclosure enables phenol recovery, purification and recycle in a simple, economic manner from waste streams from, for example, a phenol/acetone production process, e.g., a phenol/acetone plant or an upstream cumene hydroperoxide cleavage process step, and BPA production step, for use in the reaction with acetone to produce BPA. The disclosure therefore reduces the overall consumption of phenol in the production of BPA.
12 Citations
30 Claims
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1-8. -8. (canceled)
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9. A process for producing BPA comprising the steps of:
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(a) recovering phenol and acetone from a crude product stream comprising phenol and acetone produced by a phenol/acetone production process, which also produces an aqueous waste stream comprising water, unrecovered phenol and other reaction byproducts; (b) reacting acetone with a stoichiometric excess of phenol in the presence of an acidic catalyst, possibly in the presence of a cocatalyst or promoter either homogeneously fed or heterogeneously bound to an acidic catalyst, to form a reaction product stream comprising crude BPA product, unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, possibly cocatalyst or promoter, water of condensation, and other reaction byproducts; (c) distilling in single or multistage the reaction product stream from step (b) to distill off a first stream comprising water, a portion of unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, possibly cocatalyst or promoter or derivatives thereof if present in step (b), and other reaction byproducts, which constitutes the BPA waste stream, and a second stream having a portion of unreacted phenol;
while sending downstream to a BPA purification step, the purification step comprising one or more solid-liquid separation and wash steps, the resulting concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream consisting essentially of phenol in which the BPA and byproducts have been concentrated;(d) producing purified BPA by crystallization of the concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream of step (c); and (e) separating the purified BPA crystals of step (d) by solid-liquid separation and washing same in one or multiple stages with a wash stream which may include at least a portion of the second stream, or spent wash or mother liquor from subsequent crystallization, solid-liquid separation, and wash steps, to produce a final washed BPA-phenol adduct, a final spent wash and a final mother liquor; (f1) recovering phenol and possibly acetone from a BPA waste stream having the first stream by the steps of; (1) stripping any volatile sulfur compounds from the BPA waste stream; (2a) contacting the stripped BPA waste stream with an immiscible hydrocarbyl stream, wherein the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream comprises at least one of cumene, phenol, acetone, and alpha-methylstyrene (AMS);
or(2b) after combining the stripped BPA waste stream with a phenol waste stream having a portion of the aqueous waste stream from step (a), contacting the combined stream with an immiscible hydrocarbyl stream to recover a portion of the phenol in the stripped BPA waste stream or the combined stream into the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream, wherein said immiscible hydrocarbyl stream comprises at least one of cumene, phenol, acetone, and alpha-methylstyrene (AMS);
then(3) separating the phenol depleted stripped BPA waste stream, or the phenol depleted combined stream, as an aqueous stream from the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream; and (4) further recovering substantially all the phenol and acetone from the aqueous stream from step (3) by extraction, distillation, absorption, or a combination thereof, to produce an aqueous stream substantially free of phenol;
or(f2) recovering phenol and possibly acetone from phenol/BPA waste stream(s) having the aqueous waste stream from step (a) and the first stream from step (c) by the steps of; (1) stripping any volatile sulfur compounds from the first stream from step (c); (2) combining the waste streams from steps (1) and (a) to form a combined waste stream; and (3) recovering substantially all the phenol and acetone from the combined waste stream from step (2) by extraction, distillation, absorption, or a combination thereof, to produce an aqueous stream substantially free of phenol; and (g) recovering and recycling the recovered phenol and/or acetone product of step (f1) or (f2) to steps (a) and/or (b). - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A process for producing BPA comprising:
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(1) contacting benzene and a C3 alkylating agent under alkylation conditions with an alkylation catalyst in a reaction zone to produce an alkylation effluent comprising cumene; (2) oxidizing the cumene from step (1) to produce the cumene hydroperoxide; (3) cleaving the cumene hydroperoxide from step (2) to produce a crude product stream comprising phenol, acetone, water, unreacted cumene and other reaction byproducts, (4) processing the crude product stream from step (3) to recover phenol and acetone, and to produce a waste stream comprising water, unrecovered phenol, unrecovered acetone and other reaction byproducts; (5) reacting acetone with a stoichiometric excess of phenol in the presence of an acidic catalyst, possibly in the presence of a cocatalyst or promoter either homogeneously fed or heterogeneously bound to an acidic catalyst, to form a reaction product stream comprising crude BPA product, unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, possibly cocatalyst or promoter, water of condensation, and other reaction byproducts; (6) distilling in single or multistage the reaction product stream from step (5) to distill off a first stream comprising water, a portion of unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, possibly cocatalyst or promoter or derivatives thereof if present in step (5), and other reaction byproducts, which comprises at least a portion of the BPA waste stream, and a second stream having a portion of unreacted phenol;
while sending downstream to a BPA purification step, the purification step comprising one or more solid-liquid separation and wash steps, the resulting concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream consisting essentially of phenol in which the BPA and byproducts have been concentrated;(7) producing purified BPA by crystallization of the concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream of step (6); and (8) separating the purified BPA crystals of step (7) by solid-liquid separation and washing same in one or multiple stages with a wash stream which may include at least a portion of the second stream, or spent wash or mother liquor from subsequent crystallization, solid-liquid separation, and wash steps, to produce a final washed BPA-phenol adduct, a final spent wash and a final mother liquor; (9a) recovering phenol and possibly acetone from a BPA waste stream having the first stream of step (6) by the steps of; (i) stripping any volatile sulfur compounds from the BPA waste stream, (ii) contacting the stripped BPA waste stream with an immiscible hydrocarbyl stream, or after combining the stripped BPA waste stream with a phenol waste stream having a portion of the aqueous waste stream from step (4), contacting the combined stream with an immiscible hydrocarbyl stream to recover a portion of the phenol in the stripped BPA waste stream or the combined stream from (i) into the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream, wherein the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream comprises at least one of cumene, phenol, acetone, and alpha-methylstyrene (AMS);
then(iii) separating the phenol depleted stripped BPA waste stream, or the phenol depleted combined stream, as an aqueous stream from the immiscible hydrocarbyl stream; and (iv) further recovering substantially all the phenol and acetone from the aqueous stream from step (iii) by extraction, distillation, absorption, or a combination thereof, to produce an aqueous stream substantially free of phenol;
or(9b) recovering phenol and possibly acetone from phenol/BPA waste stream(s) having the waste stream from step (4) and the first stream from step (6) by the steps of; (i) stripping any volatile sulfur compounds from the first stream from step (6); (ii) combining the stripped first streams from steps (i) and waste stream from (4) to form a combined waste stream; (iii) recovering substantially all the phenol and acetone from the combined waste stream from step (ii) by extraction, distillation, absorption, or a combination thereof, to produce an aqueous stream substantially free of phenol; and (10) recovering and feeding the recovered phenol and acetone product of step (9a) or (9b) to steps (4) and/or (5). - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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- 21. A process for producing BPA comprising a BPA production process step of reacting acetone with a stoichiometric excess of phenol under acidic conditions, possibly in the presence of a cocatalyst or promoter, to form a reaction product stream comprising crude BPA product wherein a portion of the phenol, and possibly acetone, comprises recycle recovered from waste water streams generated by an upstream phenol/acetone production process and the BPA production process step.
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23. A process for recovering phenol from a waste stream comprising water and phenol from a BPA production process, comprising the steps of:
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(A) contacting a first waste stream comprising water and phenol from a BPA production process and a crude phenol/acetone product stream comprising phenol, acetone, cumene, and alpha methyl styrene (AMS), produced by cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide in a phenol/acetone production process, (B) contacting the combined stream from step (A) with a second aqueous waste stream containing metal alkali salts, produced in a phenol/acetone production process, (C) separating at least a majority of said phenol from said first waste stream into the crude phenol/acetone product stream and forming an immiscible second waste stream comprising less than 5 wt % of phenol; and (D) recovering substantially all the phenol from a portion of said second waste stream by extraction, distillation, absorption, or a combination thereof, to produce an aqueous stream substantially free of phenol from the phenol/acetone production process. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification