Patent ID: 7626060

Claim:
A process for the preparation of phenolic compounds comprising: i) oxidizing an alkylaryl compound to produce a cleavage reaction mixture comprising alkylaryl hydroperoxide and the unreacted alkylaryl compound; ii) subjecting the product from step i) to a cleavage reaction resulting in a cleavage product mixture comprising at least the phenolic compound, a ketone, the corresponding hydroxy ketone and the unreacted alkyl aryl compound; iii) working-up of the cleavage product mixtures from step ii) by distillation, which comprises separating the cleavage product mixture into at least three fractions in a single distillation step by: feeding the cleavage product mixture to a distillation column, removing a first fraction comprising the ketone at the top of the distillation column, removing a second fraction comprising the phenolic compound at the bottom of the distillation column, and removing a third fraction comprising unreacted the alkylaryl compound and the hydroxy ketone as side stream, whereby the side stream take-off is situated above the feed of the cleavage product mixture to the distillation column, and iv) removing heat from the distillation column, wherein the heat takeoff is situated above the side stream take-off of the third fraction.