Patent ID: 7393436

Claim:
A thermal separating process for removing at least one stream containing enriched (meth)acrylic monomers from a mixture containing (meth)acrylic monomers and components other than (meth)acrylic monomers, comprising conducting a continuous steady-state operation in at least one thermal separating apparatus which comprises a separating space with or without separating internals, into which separating space at least one stream containing (meth)acrylic monomers is conducted and out of which at least one stream containing (meth)acrylic monomers is conducted, wherein the at least one stream conducted altogether into the separating space contains, based on its total amount, X % by weight of components other than (meth)acrylic monomers, the at least one stream which is conducted out of the separating space with the highest proportion by weight of (meth)acrylic monomers contains Y % by weight of components other than (meth)acrylic monomers, the X %:Y % ratio is ≧5, the separating space, except at the stream inlet and at the stream outlet points, is bounded by a solid phase and comprises at least one circulation heat exchanger, and the total volume filled with liquid phase in the separating space is ≧1 m 3 , and the temperature of at least part of the liquid phase is ≧80° C., wherein, in the case that the separating space is divided into n individual volume elements i and the highest and the lowest temperatures of the liquid phase disposed in an individual volume element i do not differ by more than 2° C. and the volume element i is continuous within the separating space, the overall residence time t ort , t ort = ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ⁢ m s ⁢ ⁢ i m . i ⁢ · ⁢ 2 A , is ≦20 h, where A=(T i −T o )/10° C., T o =100° C., T i =the arithmetic mean of the highest and lowest temperature existing in the liquid phase of the volume element i in ° C., m si =the total amount of (meth)acrylic monomers present in a volume of the liquid phase present in a volume element i, {dot over (m)} i =the total amount of liquid phase stream conducted out of a volume element i, and ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ = the ⁢ ⁢ sum ⁢ ⁢ over ⁢ ⁢ all ⁢ ⁢ volume ⁢ ⁢ elements ⁢ ⁢ i , such that the sum over all volume elements i includes neither volume elements i having a liquid phase mass m i present therein and m i /{dot over (m)} i ≧100 h, as deadspace volume elements, nor volume elements i which have no liquid phase, and the total amount of the liquid phase present in the deadspace volume elements is not more than 5% by weight of the overall liquid phase present in the separating space.