Process for producing benzyl alcohol

摘要

A process for producing benzyl alcohol of high purity by hydrolysis of benzyl acetate in the presense of a solid acid catalyst, comprising steps of feeding benzyl acetate, water, and acetic acid to a hydrolysis reactor packed with a solid acid catalyst to cause reaction to obtain a liquid reaction mixture containing benzyl acetate, water, benzyl alcohol, and acetic acid; introducing the liquid reaction mixture to an acetic acid-water recovery column to separate the liquid reaction mixture by distillation into a column top distillate composed of acetic acid and water and a column bottom liquid composed mainly of benzyl alcohol and benzyl acetate; recycling the column top distillate of the acetic acid-water recovery column, after removing most of the acetic acid by an acetic acid-water separation column, to the hydrolysis reactor.