Patent ID: 7038081

Claim:
A method for producing polyacrylic acid comprising an acrylic acid production process and a polyacrylic acid production process, the acrylic acid production process comprising catalytically oxidizing propylene and/or propane in a gaseous phase to generate a reaction product, absorbing the reaction product in a solvent, and optionally separating acrylic acid from an acrylic acid aqueous solution containing the solvent by purification, the polyacrylic acid production process comprising subjecting the acrylic acid or the acrylic acid aqueous solution to polymerization, wherein heat of reaction generated at the gas-phase catalytic oxidation in the acrylic acid production process is recovered by transfer to a heat medium which is then fed to the polvacrylic acid production process, and wherein heat recovered from the heat medium is used in a heating step in the polyacrylic acid production process.