Patent ID: 7014736

Claim:
A process for distillation purification of an acrylic acid family encompassing acrylic acid and its esters with an apparatus comprising a distillation column, at least two reboilers, and a condenser, with said at least two reboilers being connected to the column bottom side of the distillation column, with the condenser being connected to the column top side of the distillation column, with the process comprising the steps of: supplying a liquid containing said acrylic acid family to the distillation column, retrieving a vapor from a column top of said distillation column, retrieving a liquid from a column bottom of said distillation column, selecting an outer diameter of the distillation column to be in a range of 2 to 6 m, selecting a height of the distillation column to be in a range of 2 to 40 m, and selecting a capacity of the distillation column to be in a range of 0.5 to 1,000 m 3 , supplying the vapor that has been retrieved from the distillation column to the condenser, condensing with the condenser the vapor that has been supplied to the condenser and then refluxing a portion of resultant condensate to the distillation column, retrieving residual condensate from the condenser, supplying the liquid in the distillation column to said at least two reboilers, heat-boiling with said at least two reboilers the liquid that has been supplied to said at least two reboilers and returning said liquid to the distillation column, and setting said at least two reboilers in parallel to the distillation column in order to prevent channeling of the liquid or vapor in the distillation column, thus preventing formation and adhesion of polymer and clogging in the distillation column and in said at least two reboilers.