Preparation of acrylic acid and esters

摘要

The production of acrylic acid (I) and/or its esters comprises; (a) catalytic gas-phase oxidation of propene and/or acrolein to give a gaseous product containing (I), (b) absorption of the reaction product with a solvent, (c) distillation in a column to give crude (I) and solvent, (d) purification of (I) by crystallisation and optionally (e) esterification of crystallised (I). Also claimed is an apparatus for the process, comprising reactor(s) for stage (a), an absorption column, a distillation column, dynamic crystalliser(s) and static crystalliser(s), and container(s) for intermediate storage.