Patent ID: 7803965

Claim:
A process for ethylene recovery in a recirculating gas process for preparing vinyl acetate, comprising: a) reacting ethylene, acetic acid and oxygen in a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction at a pressure of from 1 to 50 bar and a temperature of from 50° C. to 200° C. in a reactor, b) separating a product gas stream comprising ethylene, vinyl acetate, acetic acid, water, carbon dioxide and non-reactive gases, and c) recycling only a portion of ethylene back into the reactor, wherein d) the product gas stream is fed from the reactor at system pressure directly to a recycle gas scrubber charged with acetic acid, and vinyl acetate is removed to form a vinyl acetate-free recycle gas, and e) the vinyl acetate-free recycle gas is subsequently fed to a CO 2 absorption to remove carbon dioxide to form an ethylenic gas stream, and then f) a portion of the ethylenic gas stream is recycled into the reactor without further non-reactive gases being separated; and 1% to 25% by volume of the ethylenic gas stream is discharged without further non-reactive gases being separated, and is reused in one or more processes which consume ethylene, other than processes for preparing vinyl acetate.