A process for producing bisphenol-A comprising the steps of: a) reacting acetone with a stoichiometric excess of phenol under acidic conditions to form a reaction product stream comprising crude bisphenol-A product, unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, water of condensation, and other reaction byproducts; b) distilling in single or multistage the reaction product stream from Step (a) while sending downstream to BPA-phenol adduct crystallization and purification steps, said 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 bisphenol-A and byproducts have been concentrated; c) producing the BPA-phenol adduct crystals by crystallization of the concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream in said crystallization, solid-liquid separation and wash steps; d) separating the BPA-phenol adduct crystals by solid-liquid separation and washing same in one or multiple stages with a wash phenol stream which may include at least a portion of the volatilised unreacted phenol stream recovered from Step (b), or spent wash or mother liquor from subsequent crystallization, solid-liquid separation, and wash steps, to product final washed BPA-phenol adduct, final spent wash and final mother liquor; e) cracking a stream comprising at least a portion of said final mother liquor of Step (d) in a reactor with basic catalyst under reaction conditions including a temperature of from 200 to 350°C, a pressure of from 1.33 to 101.3 kPa-a, a residence time of from 5 to 600 minutes and a catalyst concentration of from 5 to 1500 wppm, said reaction conditions selected to recover a product comprising from 60 to 80 wt % of said portion of said final mother liquor cracked stream as phenol having a purity level of from 95 to 100 wt % and from 10 to 40 wt % of said cracked stream as heavy residue byproduct; and f) recovering and feeding the phenol product of Step (e) to Step (a) and/or Step (d) characterised in that i) Step (b) distils off a volatilised unreacted phenol stream, possibly an unreacted acetone stream, and the water of condensation, and ii) cooling for the crystallization in Step (c) is provided by vaporization of an alkane hydrocarbon or mixture of hydrocarbons containing from 4 to 6 carbons. a) reacting acetone with a stoichiometric excess of phenol under acidic conditions to form a reaction product stream comprising crude bisphenol-A product, unreacted phenol, possibly unreacted acetone, water of condensation, and other reaction byproducts; b) distilling in single or multistage the reaction product stream from Step (a) while sending downstream to BPA-phenol adduct crystallization and purification steps, said 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 bisphenol-A and byproducts have been concentrated; c) producing the BPA-phenol adduct crystals by crystallization of the concentrated BPA phenolic feed stream in said crystallization, solid-liquid separation and wash steps; d) separating the BPA-phenol adduct crystals by solid-liquid separation and washing same in one or multiple stages with a wash phenol stream which may include at least a portion of the volatilised unreacted phenol stream recovered from Step (b), or spent wash or mother liquor from subsequent crystallization, solid-liquid separation, and wash steps, to product final washed BPA-phenol adduct, final spent wash and final mother liquor; e) cracking a stream comprising at least a portion of said final mother liquor of Step (d) in a reactor with basic catalyst under reaction conditions including a temperature of from 200 to 350°C, a pressure of from 1.33 to 101.3 kPa-a, a residence time of from 5 to 600 minutes and a catalyst concentration of from 5 to 1500 wppm, said reaction conditions selected to recover a product comprising from 60 to 80 wt % of said portion of said final mother liquor cracked stream as phenol having a purity level of from 95 to 100 wt % and from 10 to 40 wt % of said cracked stream as heavy residue byproduct; and f) recovering and feeding the phenol product of Step (e) to Step (a) and/or Step (d) i) Step (b) distils off a volatilised unreacted phenol stream, possibly an unreacted acetone stream, and the water of condensation, and ii) cooling for the crystallization in Step (c) is provided by vaporization of an alkane hydrocarbon or mixture of hydrocarbons containing from 4 to 6 carbons.