Process for preparing lactate

摘要

A process for preparing a lactate by the reaction of lactamide and a formate is herein disclosed which comprises the step of recovering components having lower boiling points than the lactate from a reaction solution by distillation under a condition that M is 16 or less, M being defined as follows: Retention time of liquid in the bottom of the distillation column (hour) multiplied by (the temperature of the bottom of the distillation column minus 126) ( DEG C). According to this process, the lactate can be purified by the distillation even under atmospheric pressure or more, while the production of the 2-formyloxy propionate is restrained, so that the lactate can be prepared in the high yield.