The Cumene process (Cumene-phenol process, Hock process) is an industrial process for developing phenol and acetone from benzene and propylene. The term stems from cumene (isopropyl benzene), the intermediate material during the process. It was invented by Heinrich Hock in 1944 and independently by R. Ūdris and P. Sergeyev in 1942 (USSR).
This process converts two relatively cheap starting materials, benzene and propylene, into two more valuable ones, phenol and acetone. Other reactants required are oxygen from air and small amounts of a radical initiator. Most of the worldwide production of phenol and acetone is now based on this method. In 2003, nearly 7 million tonnes of phenol was produced by the Hock Process.
Read more about Cumene Process: Technical Description
Famous quotes containing the word process:
“A designer who is not also a couturier, who hasn’t learned the most refined mysteries of physically creating his models, is like a sculptor who gives his drawings to another man, an artisan, to accomplish. For him the truncated process of creating will always be an interrupted act of love, and his style will bear the shame of it, the impoverishment.”
—Yves Saint Laurent (b. 1936)