Patent ID: 7112702

Claim:
A commercial scale continuous process for the reaction of a ketone with a phenol to form a bisphenol comprising reacting a feed comprising a phenol and a ketone at a phenol to ketone mole ratio of about 4 to about 65 by passing the feed at a weight hour space velocity of about 0.1 to about 10 through a modified ion exchange resin catalyst at an initial temperature of about 30 to about 100° C. to produce an effluent, wherein the ketone comprises less than 250 parts per million methanol and the modified ion exchange resin catalyst comprises a crosslinked gellular acid functionalized polystyrene resin having acid sites and a premodification acidic milliequivalent per gram catalyst value of greater than or equal to about 3.5 when dry and having a degree of crosslinking of about 1.5 to about 8%, the resin modified by neutralization of the acid sites with a mercapto promoter wherein the degree of neutralization is about 35 to about 75 mole % of the resin acid sites and the mercapto promoter is selected from the group consisting of promoter compounds I and II having the formula wherein R 1 is an alkylene having 1 to about 10 carbons, R 2 is a hydrogen, t-butyl or acyl and R 3 is hydrogen, C 1 to C 5 carboxylate or a branched, unbranched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to about 10 carbons; derivatives thereof; and mixtures of the foregoing, and further wherein the effluent has a temperature about 4 to about 40° C. greater than the initial temperature.