Elf Atochem S.a.

Patrick Delafin

Michel Fauconet

Norbert Richard

To recover these noble products consisting of acrylic acid monomer, acrylic ester monomers and alcohols, a thermal cracking is performed in the absence of catalyst on a mixture of heavy distillation residues originating, on the one hand, from the manufacture of acrylic acid and, on the other hand, from the manufacture of the esters, the light fraction originating from the dissociation reactions is continuously vaporized during the cracking operation and this light fraction is distilled in order to recover, after condensation, the required products. The process according to the invention may consist in conducting the cracking of the mixture of heavy residues, optionally preheated, in a reactor (R1); feeding a distillation column (C1) with the light cracking products; recovering the required mixture of light noble products at the head of column (C1); recycling the flow recovered at the foot of column (C1) into the reactor (R1); recovering the heavy residue from the reactor (R1) and sending it to a removal treatment, if appropriate after having diluted it with a part of the flow recovered at the foot of column (C1), the remainder of the said flow being recycled into the reactor (R1). Figure to be published: FIG. 1

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Saint Auban, France

Patrick Delafin