Abstract: The "dual carbon" goal promotes China's chemical industry green development to a new level. To optimize the production route of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone in producing caprolactam, this article introduces the main industrial synthesis process of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone. The traditional processes such as cyclohexane oxidation, cyclohexene hydration and phenol hydrogenation as well as the new esterification hydrogenation process have been quantitatively evaluated for the degree of greenness by introducing index of atomic economy. It is found that the novel process of esterification hydrogenation has more advantages in atomic economy, high single-pass conversion and good economic benefits.

Key words: cyclohexanol, cyclohexanone, atomic economy, quantitative analysis