ºÓ-ethyl phenol separation process

摘要

A process of separating ortho ethyl phenol from a coal-tar concentrate containing the same comprises mixing the concentrate with quinaldine and removing the resulting ortho ethyl phenolquinaldine complex. The quinaldine may be added to the 2 : 6 xylenol concentrates obtained from e.g. vertical and low temperature retort tars or to the mother liquor from the crystallization of the xylenol. The concentrate may be a cresol-xylenol fraction which has been subjected to fractional azeotropic distillation with water to produce a mixture enriched in 2 : 6 xylenol or it may be obtained by dry distillation of the cresol fraction of vertical retort tar. In an example an ortho ethyl phenol fraction obtained by the latter method is mixed with quinaldine and cooled to obtain crystals of the complex which are treated with water and hydrochloric acid and steam distilled to obtain ortho ethyl phenol. Specification 708,925 is referred to.