Cumene process

[2][3] This process converts two relatively cheap starting materials, benzene and propylene, into two more valuable ones, phenol and acetone.

Benzene and propene are compressed together to a pressure of 30 standard atmospheres at 250 °C in presence of a catalytic Lewis acid.

This is followed by a step in which the phenyl group migrates from the benzyl carbon to the adjacent oxygen and a water molecule is lost, producing a resonance stabilized tertiary carbocation.

[8] Starting with the alkylation of benzene with mixture of 1 and 2-butenes, the cumene process produces phenol and butanones.

[5] Crude acetone is hydrogenated in the liquid phase over Raney nickel or a mixture of copper and chromium oxide to give isopropyl alcohol.

[14] Mitsui & Co. developed additional step(s) to hydrogenating acetone and dehydrating the isopropanol product to propene, which is recycled as a starting reactant.