RECOVERY OF LOWER ALKYL ALCOHOL IN PRODUCTION OF (METH) ACRYLIC ACID LOWER ALKYL ESTER AND PRODUCTION OF THE ESTER

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for the efficient recovery of a lower alcohol, provided with a salt water extraction step capable of getting a water layer having increased content of extracted lower alcohol and decreased content of extracted acrylic acid ester. ;SOLUTION: Acrylic acid is esterified with ethanol in the presence of a catalyst, the reaction liquid is fractionated to obtain crude ethyl acrylate containing ethanol, the ethanol in the crude ethyl acrylate is extracted with an aqueous solution of sodium chloride having a concentration of 5-26% and the extracted ethanol is recovered from the extraction salt water layer by distillation. The specific gravity difference between the salt water layer and the organic layer after the salt water extraction is preferably 0.10-0.15. In the case of applying the method to the production of methyl acrylate, it is preferable to carry out the extraction with an aqueous solution of sodium chloride having a concentration of 8-20% and adjust the specific gravity difference to 0.07-0.10.;COPYRIGHT: (C)1997,JPO