Recovery of pure cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF PURE CYCLOHEXANONE AND CYCLOHEXANOL FROM OXIDATION PRODUCTS WHICH HAVE BEEN OBTAINED BY OXIDATION OF CYCLOHEXANE WITH A GAS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF OXYGEN AND OXYGENCONTAINING GASES WHICH COMPRISES DISTILLING OFF THE EXCESS CYCLOHEXANE, FEEDING THE RESULTANT COMPOSITION TO A FIRST RECITIFICATION ZONE AND THEREIN SEPARATING SAID OXIDATION PRODUCTS INTO CYCLOHEXANONE, MINOR AMOUNTS OF CYCLOHEXANOL, AND IMPURITIES HAVING A LOWER BOILING POINT THAN CYCLOHEXANONE AS A FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE OVERHEAD AND INTO CYCLOHEXANOL AND IMPURITIES WHICH HAVE A HIGHER BOILING POINT THAN CYCLOHEXANOL AS A FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS AT A PRESSURE OF 10 TO 100 MM. HG ABSOLUTE, SUBJECTING SAID FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE OVERHEAD TO A RECTIFICATION IN A SECOND RECTIFICATION ZONE AT A PRESSURE O 300 MM. HG ABSOLUTE TO 5 ATMOSPHERES TO SEPARATE SAID FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE OVERHEAD INTO A SECOND RECTIFICATION ZONE OVERHEAD CONSISTING MAINLY OF SAID IMPURITIES HAVING A LOWER BOILING POINT THAN CYCLOHEXANONE AND A SECOND RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS CONSISTING MAINLY OF CYCLOHEXANONE WITH MINOR AMOUNTS OF CYCLOHEXANOL THEREIN, SUBJECTING THE SECOND RECTIFICATIN ZONE BOTTOMS TO A RECTIFICATIN AT 1 MM. HG ABSOLUTE TO 5 ATMOSPHERES IN A THIRD RECTIFICATION ZONE TO SEPARATE SAID SECOND RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS INTO PURE CYCLOHEXANONE AS THE THIRD RECTIFICATIN ZONE OVERHEAD AND SAID MINOR AMOUNTS OF CYCLOHEXANOL AS THE THIRD RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS, AND SUBJECTING THE FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE TO SEPARATE SAID FICATION IN A FOURTH RECTIFICATION ZONE TO SEPARATE SAID FIRST RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS INTO PURE CYCLOHEXANOL AS THE FOURTH RECTIFICATION ZONE OVERHEAD AND SAID IMPURITIES WHICH HAVE A HIGHER BOLING POINT THAN CYCLOHEXANOL AS THE FOURTH RECTIFICATION ZONE BOTTOMS.