Patent ID: 7157598

Claim:
A process for preparing an aqueous alkali metal acrylate solution by distillatively removing acrylic acid from an acrylic acid-containing mixture and generating an aqueous alkali metal acrylate solution from the distillatively removed acrylic acid and an aqueous solution of a basic alkali metal salt, which comprises a) feeding the acrylic acid-containing mixture to a distillation apparatus, b) carrying out the removal of the acrylic acid from the acrylic acid-containing mixture in the distillation apparatus above the feed point and c) generating the aqueous alkali metal acrylate solution in such a manner that the acrylic acid removed in the distillation apparatus is taken up immediately from the gas phase into an aqueous solution of at least one alkali metal compound selected from the group consisting of an alkali metal hydroxide, an alkali metal carbonate and an alkali metal hydrogencarbonate.