Patent ID: 7994350

Claim:
A process for the continuous preparation of N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone (NEP) comprising: reacting gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) with monoethylamine (MEA) in the liquid phase at a temperature from 320 to 420° C. and an absolute pressure from 70 to 120 bar with a molar ratio of the starting materials GBL:MEA being in the range from 1:1.08 to 1:2 wherein a feed mixture at a reactor inlet comprising less than 15% by weight of water; introducing a reaction product obtained as feed into a column K 1 in which MEA and water are distilled off from NEP, feeding an overhead distillate from the column K 1 to a further column K 3 in which dewatering of MEA takes place, with the dewatering of said aqueous MEA solution occurring in the column K 3 and the resulting MEA then going as starting material into the process, wherein said starting material MEA is introduced into the process as an aqueous MEA solution in column K 3 .