Patent ID: 7557252

Claim:
A process for simultaneously producing a dihydroxybenzene and a diisopropylbenzene dicarbinol, which comprises the following steps of: (1) oxidizing a diisopropylbenzene with an oxygen containing gas to obtain an oxidation reaction mixture containing a diisopropylbenzene dihydroperoxide and a diisopropylbenzene hydroxy hydroperoxide; (2) subjecting the oxidation reaction mixture obtained in the oxidation step (1) to extraction operation with an alkaline aqueous solution and to extraction operation with an organic solvent to separate into a liquid containing the diisopropylbenzene dihydroperoxide and a liquid containing the diisopropylbenzene hydroxy hydroperoxide; (3) subjecting the liquid containing the diisopropylbenzene dihydroperoxide to decomposition reaction in the presence of an acid catalyst to obtain a liquid containing a dihydroxybenzene; (4) subjecting the liquid containing the diisopropylbenzene hydroxy hydroperoxide to decomposition reaction in the presence of an acid catalyst to obtain a liquid containing acetone and an isopropenyl phenol; (5) subjecting the liquid containing acetone and the isopropenyl phenol to distillation to separate it into a mixture of acetone and the organic solvent, and a heavy fraction containing the isopropenyl phenol; (6) subjecting a part of the diisopropylbenzene hydroxy hydroperoxide to reduction reaction thereby to obtain a liquid containing a diisopropylbenzene dicarbinol; and (7) purifying the diisopropylbenzene dicarbinol from the liquid containing the diisopropylbenzene dicarbinol through purification operations containing crystallization, filtration and drying, and supplying a filtrate obtained by the filtration to the decomposition step (4) and/or distillation step (5).