Patent ID: 7193093

Claim:
A process for preparing an alkylene oxide, which process comprises: (i) oxidizing an alkylbenzene to obtain a stream comprising alkylbenzene hydroperoxide; (ii) contacting at least part of the alkylbenzene hydroperoxide obtained in step (i) with an olefin to obtain a product stream comprising an alkylene oxide; (iii) separating alkylene oxide compound from the product stream of step (ii) to obtain (a) a residual product stream comprising alkyiphenyl alcohol and (b) alkylene oxide; and, (iv) feeding at least a part of the residual product stream comprising alkylphenyl alcohol to a reactor having a catalytic distillation zone, and concurrently in the reactor: (a) contacting the residual product stream comprising alkyphenyl alcohol with hydrogen in the catalytic distillation zone to convert the alkyiphenyl alcohol in the residual product stream to alkylbenzene and form a reaction mixture; and, (b) separating alkylbenzene from the reaction mixture by fractional distillation.