Patent ID: 7202377

Claim:
A method of saturating ethylene-containing gases with acetic acid before they are fed into a vinyl acetate reactor, in which the acetic acid recovered in the vinyl acetate process is introduced into a column in which ethylene-containing gas fed in via the bottom is saturated with acetic acid, wherein the column has a countercurrent stripping section and a rectification section and the recovered acetic acid is introduced into the countercurrent stripping section and/or the rectification section and fresh acetic acid is introduced into the rectification section and the liquid taken off from the column is divided into two substreams and one substream is pumped back into the column with maintenance of a minimum pumped circulation required for sufficient saturation with acetic acid, with this substream being monitored in terms of safety and being heated in a heat exchanger arranged in parallel to at least one further heat exchanger before entering the column, and the other substream is discharged.