Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.

Toshiyuki Gotoh

Takafumi Abe

Kazuto Ikemoto

Yoshikazu Shima

Hirofumi Higuchi

Takako Uchiyama

A process for preparing a lactate which includes: (a) preparing lactonitrile from prussic acid and acetaldehyde, (b) hydrating the lactonitrile to form lactamide, (c) forming the desired lactate and formamide from lactamide and formate (or methanol and carbon monoxide), (d) separating and collecting components, having a lower boiling point than that of lactate from the reaction liquid in step (c), by distillation under specified conditions, and (e) dehydrating formamide from step (d) to form prussic acid and recycling the prussic acid to step (a). Heretofore, lactates had been manufactured by forming lactonitrile (cyanohydrin) from acetaldehyde and prussic acid, and then esterifying lactonitrile with a mineral acid or the like. However, in this conventional process, ammonium salts were formed as by-products in an amount equal to that of the lactate. According to the present invention, a lactate can be efficiently manufactured on a commercial scale without forming a large amount of the ammonium salts as by-products. In particular, the yield of the lactate can be increased by controlling the formation of 2-formyloxy propionate and also a dimer of a lactate.

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Niigata, Japan

Toshiyuki Gotoh