Workup of a cyclododecanone cyclododecanol mixture in a dividing wall column

1. A process for removing a cyclododecanone-rich fraction (A) from a dehydrogenation mixture (O), the dehydrogenation mixture (O) comprising:

components having a boiling point less than cyclododecanone (CDON) (LB); cyclododecanone (CDON);

components having a boiling point between CDON and cyclododecanol (CDOL) (MB);

cyclododecanol (CDOL); and

components having a boiling point above CDOL (HB);

the process comprising:

a) feeding the dehydrogenation mixture (O) to a preliminary separator column;

b) distillatively removing the LB components from the dehydrogenation mixture (O) to obtain a first mixture (ABC 1 ) comprising the cyclododecanone (CDON), the MB components, the cyclododecanol (CDOL) and the HB components;

c) feeding the first mixture (ABC 1 ) into a dividing wall column (DWC), which comprises:

a left-hand column section (LHS);

a right-hand column section (RHS),

a dividing wall (W) which separates the left-hand column section (LHS) and the right-hand column section (RHS) and extends along the dividing wall column (DWC) such that a top ( 7 ) and a bottom ( 8 ) of the two column sections (LHS, RHS) are combined, and

a liquid connection (V) between the two column sections (LHS, RHS) which bypasses the dividing wall (W) and is located at a separation stage disposed between the top ( 7 ) and bottom ( 8 );

d) drawing off the cyclododecanone-rich fraction (A) from the top ( 7 ) of the dividing wall column (DWC);

e) drawing off a second mixture (ABC 2 ) comprising cyclododecanone (CDON), cyclododecanol (CDOL) and the MB components from a side draw (S) of the dividing wall column (DWC);

f) drawing off a fraction (C) comprising cyclododecanol (CDOL) and the HB components from the bottom ( 8 ) of the dividing wall column (DWC).

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein

the first mixture (ABC 1 ) is fed into the left-hand column section (LHS), and

the second mixture (ABC 2 ) is drawn off from the side draw (S) present in the right-hand column section (RHS).

3. The process according to claim 2 , wherein the liquid connection (V) between the LHS and RHS column sections transports liquid comprising MB components from the left-hand column section (LHS) to the right-hand column section (RHS).

4. The process according to claim 3 , wherein the LHS comprises a liquid collector and the liquid connection (V) originates at the liquid collector.

5. The process according to claim 3 , wherein

the liquid connection (V) originates at a separation plane of the left-hand column section (LHS) having a maximum concentration of the MB components, and

the liquid connection (V) opens at a separation plane of the right-hand column section (RHS) having a MB component composition corresponding to the MB components concentration of the left-hand column.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein a pressure of the dividing wall column (DWC) is below 1 bar absolute.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dehydrogenation mixture (O) comprises:

LB components: 1 to 8% by weight;

Cyclododecanone (CDON): 60 to 90% by weight;

MB components: 0 to 1.5% by weight;

Cyclododecanol (CDOL): 10 to 40% by weight;

HB components: 0.1 to 2.5% by weight;

wherein a sum of the weight % values is 100%.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein a content of cyclododecanone (CDON) in the cyclododecanone-rich fraction (A) is at least 98% by weight.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the fraction (C) comprising cyclododecanol (CDOL) and HB components is free of cyclododecanone (CDON).

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dehydrogenation mixture (O) is obtained by a process comprising:

g) oxidation of cyclododecane (CDAN) with oxygen to obtain an oxidation mixture ( 2 ) comprising the LB components, cyclododecanone (CDON), the MB components, cyclododecanol (CDOL) and the HB components

h) distillatively removing a cyclododecanol-rich fraction (CBOL technical quality) (CDOL t.q.) from the oxidation mixture ( 2 );

i) removing the HB components from the CDOL t.q. to obtain a fraction (C) comprising cyclododecanol (CDOL) and high boilers (HB);

removing the HB components from the CDOL to obtain a cyclododecanol-rich fraction; and

j) dehydrogenating the cyclododecanol-rich fraction from which the high boilers are removed to obtain the dehydrogenation mixture (O).

11. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the fraction (C) comprising cyclododecanol (CDOL) and the HB components is recycled into h).

12. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising:

oximating the cyclododecanone-rich fraction (A) to obtain an oxime of cyclododecanone; and

reacting the cyclododecane oxime with sulfuric acid to obtain laurolactam.

13. A dividing wall column for the process of claim 1 , comprising:

a space which is surrounded by a shell ( 9 ) and is divided into a left-hand column section (LHS), a right-hand column section (RHS), a bottom ( 8 ) and a top ( 7 ),

a dividing wall (W) which separates the left-hand column section (LHS) from the right-hand column section (RHS) and extends through the shell ( 9 ) between the bottom ( 8 ) and top ( 7 ),

a feed for the introduction of the first mixture (ABC 1 ),

a draw at the top for the removal of the CDON fraction (A),

a draw at the bottom for the removal of the CDOL fraction (C);

a side draw (S) for the removal of ABC 2 fraction; and

a liquid connection (V) between the LHS and RHS column sections located between the top ( 7 ) and bottom ( 8 ).