Published December 1977
Among all the processes for making phenol, the cumene process is the most economical. The by-production of acetone, unique to this process for phenol, is not a serious constraint, at least in the United States. If by-production of acetone has to be avoided, the best choices are the toluene process and the oxychlorination process, with the former having an economic advantage at present relative prices of toluene and benzene. The economics of the sulfonation process depends heavily on the market for a by-product useful only to pulp mills. The chlorination process has a high production cost, and the by-products are not common commodities.
Other processes (direct oxidation, phenyl acetate, and dealkylation) were also evaluated. None of them has prospects of becoming commercial with current technology.
