The invention belongs to the technical field of coking product extraction and organic separation, and particularly relates to a method for refining 2, 3, 5-tricresol and 3-methyl-5-
ethyl phenol from a tricresol mixture. According to the method for refining the 2, 3, 5-tricresol and the 3-methyl-5-
ethyl phenol from the tricresol mixture, the tricresol mixture is rectified to obtain the mixed tricresol, the mixed tricresol and the isobutene are subjected to the tert-butylation reaction under the action of the catalyst, and due to the fact that the 2, 3, 5-tricresol and the 3-methyl-5-
ethyl phenol do not react with the isobutene, the 2, 3, 5-tricresol and the 3-methyl-5-ethyl
phenol are not reacted with the isobutene. The method comprises the following steps: taking 2, 3, 5-trimethylphenol as a
raw material, reacting other
phenols with isobutene to generate corresponding tert-butyl
phenol,
boiling point of a tert-butyl product is obviously higher than that of 2, 3, 5-trimethylphenol and 3-methyl-5-ethyl
phenol, performing rectification to obtain a 3-ethyl-5-
cresol crude product and a 2, 3, 5-trimethylphenol crude product, and performing
solvent refining and melt
crystallization to obtain 3-ethyl-5-
cresol of which the content is greater than or equal to 99% and 2, 3, 5-trimethylphenol of which the content is greater than or equal to 99%.