filtrate is washed with water and the dried catalyst and solvent are almost quantitatively recovered compared to the known processes the process of the invention has the following advantages a higher concentration of substrate and shorter reaction times thus resulting in a significantly better space time yield c recovery of the solvent and the added catalyst and therefore almost no salt load in the waste water other features of the invention will become apparent in the course of the following descriptions of exemplary embodiments which were given for illustration of the invention and are not intended to be limiting thereof 25 g of epoxy cyclododecane and 1 g of lithium chloride were dissolved in 20 g of n n 39 dimethyl ethylene urea and the solvent was stirred at 200 u00b0 c for 6 hours the reaction mixture was analyzed to have a 94 yield of cyclododecanone a solution containing 25 g of epoxy cyclododecane 1 g of lithium chloride and 20 g of n methyl 2 pyrrolidone was stirred at 200 u00b0 c for 6 hours the reaction mixture contained 93 5 yield of cyclododecanone a solution containing 12 5 g of 1 2 epoxy cyclododeca 5 9 diene 10.