The invention discloses a device and a method for separating reaction products from an o-
cresol device, which are characterized in that non-condensable gas, light components and heavy components of reaction products from a reaction unit are separated in a
flash evaporation unit,
methanol,
anisole and part of water are separated from the light components through a
methanol removal unit,
anisole is separated from high-concentration
anisole,
methanol and water through an extraction unit, and the high-concentration anisole is separated from the methanol and the water through a
flash evaporation unit. Carrying out
phenol and water separation on a
phenol and water mixture discharged from the bottom of the methanol removal
tower in an azeotropic
dehydration unit; and heavy components discharged from the
flash evaporation unit are subjected to
phenol recovery through a phenol
recovery unit, and phenol-free mixed phenol is further separated into an o-
cresol product and a 2, 6-
xylenol product in an o-
cresol separation unit. By adopting a method of combining rectification,
azeotropic distillation and liquid-liquid extraction, the phenol-methanol
alkyl reaction product can be efficiently separated, the byproduct anisole is effectively separated, the influence of the byproduct on the reaction selectivity is reduced, the
mass fraction of the o-cresol product is greater than or equal to 99.5%, the
discharge of phenol-containing
wastewater is avoided through
azeotropic distillation, and the production cost is reduced. The
energy consumption and the cost are reduced.