Patent ID: 8586779

Claim:
A process for preparing an alkyl methacrylate, comprising: esterifying a methacrylamide with an alcohol in the presence of an inorganic acid in a reactor comprising a battery of three or more tanks in series to obtain an alkyl methacrylate; continuously passing steam into each of the three or more tanks; continuously discharging at least a portion of the alkyl methacrylate from the reactor into a distillation column as a vapor stream comprising an azeotrope of at least the alkyl methacrylate and water; and separating the azeotrope from higher boiling components of the vapor stream in the distillation column; wherein in the battery of reaction tanks, the first tank in the series does not have a direct vapor connection to the distillation column, gaseous products of the first tank in the series are fed directly to the second tank, overflow of each tank is successively passed to the next tank, each tank is steam heated, a temperature of the first and second tank is 100 to about 180° C. and a temperature of the third tank and an optional fourth tank is about 120 to 140° C.