Production of (meth)acrylic acid esters, useful for the production of adhesives, paints, textile-, leather and paper additives, comprises acid catalyzed esterification using a polymerization inhibitor

摘要

Process for the production of (meth)acrylic acid esters, comprises acid catalyzed esterification of (meth)acrylic acid with the corresponding alcohol, in homogeneous liquid phase, in the presence of at least one polymerization inhibitor. A process for the production of (meth)acrylic acid esters (I) by acid catalyzed esterification of (meth)acrylic acid with the corresponding alcohol, in homogeneous liquid phase, in the presence of at least one polymerization inhibitor comprises: (A) esterification in a reaction zone having at least one distillation unit for the separation of byproduct water, along with olefin, alcohol, acetic acid ester and propionic acid ester, and condensation and separation into an aqueous and an organic phase and passage of the reaction mixture from (A) to the next step; (B) a catalyst separation step for separation into an esterification catalyst containing sump product and a (meth)acrylic acid ester containing head product; (C) distillation of the head product to remove the remaining (meth)acrylic acid and passage of the (meth)acrylic acid ester to the next step; (D) a low boiling point material separation to remove acetic acid ester and starting alcohol and passage of the (meth)acrylic acid ester to the final step; (E) a high boiling point material distillation step and thermal and/or catalytic treatment of the high boiling point material stream.