Production process of glycolide

摘要

The invention provides a production process of glycolide comprising the respective steps of: Step 1 of heating a mixture containing a glycolic acid oligomer and a high boiling polar organic under normal or reduced pressure to reflux the mixture and at that time, conducting a total reflux operation in a reflux time within a range of 0.1 to 20 hours under conditions that substantially the whole amount of a distillate distilled out of a reflux system containing the mixture is refluxed into the reflux system; Step 2 of heating the mixture after the total reflux operation or a mixture obtained by adding the high boiling polar organic solvent to a glycolic acid oligomer component recovered from the mixture after the total reflux operation to conduct depolymerization; and Step 3 of collecting glycolide from a co-distillate.