Esterification process of (meth)acrylic acid with an alcanol

摘要

Esterifying (meth)acrylic acid with an alkanol in the presence of an esterification catalyst is claimed, in which unreacted starting materials and the (meth)acrylic acid ester are sepd. by distillation to leave behind an oxyester sump prod. Either (a) (meth)acrylic acid is added directly to the sump prod. and then the oxyester sump is cleaved at high temp. by an acid catalyst other than (meth)acrylic acid, or (b) the oxyester is sepd. from the sump prod. by distillation and then cleaved in the same way as in step (a).