Basf Aktiengesellschaft

Matthias Geisendorfer

Gerhard Nestler

Holger Herbst

Toni Dockner

Alexander Weck

Heinrich Aichinger

Willi Schmidt

Wolfgang Paulus

Gabriele Iffland

Albrecht Dams

Herbert Exner

In a process for the continuous preparation of alkyl esters of (meth)acrylic acid by reacting (meth)acrylic acid with alkanols having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms in a homogeneous, liquid, solvent-free phase at elevated temperature and in the presence of an acid esterification catalyst, in which the (meth)acrylic acid, the alkanol and the acid catalyst are fed to a reaction zone, the water formed is removed by rectification during a residence time as constituent of a mixture comprising starting alkanol in a rectification unit (III) superposed on the reaction zone, the distillate obtained is separated into an organic phase comprising alkanol and an aqueous phase comprising water, the organic phase is essentially completely returned to the rectification unit (III), the reaction mixture is discharged from the reaction zone and conveyed into a distillative separation zone comprising further rectification units and in the latter the alkyl (meth)acrylate formed is separated off.

Continuous preparation of alkyl esters of (meth)acrylic acid

The use of organic, polymeric, anionic water-soluble flocculants for the phase separation of an organic-aqueous system which essentially comprises monomeric acrylates, diacrylates, (poly)ester acrylates or (poly)ether acrylates and unreacted residues of the carboxylic anhydrides, carboxylic acids or alcohols used for preparing the acrylates.

Using anionic flocculants for organic-aqueous phase separation

In a process for esterifying (meth)acrylic acid with an alkanol in the presence of an acidic esterification catalyst, in which unconverted starting compounds and the (meth)acrylates to be formed are separated off by distillation and an oxyester-containing bottom product is formed, the bottom product is separated off and is heated in the presence of an acid to 150-250.degree. C. and the pressure is adjusted so that the cleavage products formed under the abovementioned conditions from the oxyesters contained in the bottom product evaporate directly. The process can be carried out in the presence of molecular oxygen. Mineral acids, for example sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid and/or alkanesulfonic or arylsulfonic acids, for example methanesulfonic acid or p-toluenesulfonic acid, can be added to the bottom product.

Esterification of (meth)acrylic acid with an alkanol

In the process for the continuous preparation of alkyl esters of (meth)acrylic acid by reacting (meth)acrylic acid with monohydric alkanols having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms in the presence of an acid esterification catalyst in a reaction zone, there is discharged from the reaction zone a product mixture which comprises the alkyl (meth)acrylate formed, the catalyst and the by-products formed during the course of the esterification having boiling points higher than that of the alkyl (meth)acrylate, and from which the alkyl (meth)acrylate is separated by distillation in a separation zone. The product mixture discharged from the reaction zone is fed to a rectification unit (I), in this unit the product mixture discharged is separated by rectification into at least one product (I) comprising the alkyl ester of (meth)acrylic acid and a product (II) comprising the catalyst, the product (I) is fed to a further rectification unit (II) and in this the alkyl ester of (meth)acrylic acid is separated off by rectification.

Growing community of inventors

Neustadt, Germany

Matthias Geisendorfer