Patent ID: 8530700
Filing Date: 2013-09-10
Classification: C07C

Abstract:
1. A process for the recovery of (meth)acrylic acid without the use of azeotropic solvent, the process comprising: A. Cooling a gaseous reaction mixture comprising (meth)acrylic acid, the mixture obtained from the gas-phase oxidation of at least one (meth)acrylic acid precursor; B. Dehydrating the cooled gas mixture in a dehydration column to produce a dehydration column overhead stream and a dehydration column bottoms stream wherein the dehydrating is carried out without using a solvent that forms an azeotrope with water; C. At least partially condensing the dehydration column overhead stream to form a condensate, and returning at least a portion of the condensate to the dehydration column as reflux; D. Dividing the dehydration column bottoms stream into at least first and second dehydration column bottom streams, and passing at least a portion of one of the first and second dehydration column bottoms stream to a dehydration column heater/reboiler and passing at least a portion of the other dehydration column bottoms stream to the upper half of a second column; E. Subjecting the portion of the bottoms stream passed to the second column to distillation within the second column to produce at least a second column overhead stream and a second column bottoms stream comprising heavy components; F. At least partially condensing the second column overhead stream to form a second overhead condensate, and passing at least a portion of the second overhead condensate to the dehydration column heater/reboiler; and G. Passing at least a portion of the second column bottoms stream to a second column heater/reboiler, and H. Providing one or more inhibitor solutions to one or more locations in the process, said inhibitor solutions comprising