Patent ID: 7799946

Claim:
A process for separating methacrylic acid (MAA) and acetic acid (AA) in a stripper/absorber system comprising the steps of: introducing a stream comprising methacrolein (MA), MAA and AA to an absorber column through a lower side port, introducing a first absorbent stream into a top side port of the absorber column, introducing a second absorbent stream into an upper side port of the absorber column, withdrawing an absorber bottoms stream from a bottom port of the absorber column, withdrawing a waste overhead stream from a top port of the absorber column, forwarding the absorber bottoms stream to a top input port of a stripper column, introducing a stripper gas stream into a lower side port of the stripper column, withdrawing an overhead stream comprising all or substantially all of the MA from a top output port of the stripper column, withdrawing a stripper bottoms stream from a bottom port of the stripper column, and recycling a portion of the stripper bottoms stream through a reboiler to a bottom side port of the stripper column, taking a small split stream from the remaining stripper bottoms for MAA and AA recovery, and recycling the balance of the stripper bottoms at an absorbent for the absorber column, where a mass ratio of the split stream to the remaining stripper bottoms is governed by: Y=C 1 +C 2 *X where C 1 and C 2 are constants, Y is a ratio of mass flow in the split stream to the remaining stripper bottoms mass flow, and X is the mass flow of the remaining stripper bottoms.