Patent ID: 8710217

Claim:
A process for preparing a lactamate, comprising: (a) forming a reaction mixture comprising at least one alkoxide and at least one lactam by introducing the at least one lactam to the at least one alkoxide to obtain a reactant mixture wherein said lactam is ε-caprolactam; (b) homogenizing the reactant mixture at a temperature between 30° and 70° C. to obtain a homogenized reactant mixture wherein the homogenization results in essentially no reaction between the at least one alkoxide with the at least one lactam; (c) feeding the homogenized reactant mixture into a thin-film evaporator; (d) reactively distilling the reactant mixture fed in the thin-film evaporator at a temperature of 30 to 60° C., optionally with simultaneous stripping of the reactant mixture in countercurrent; and (e) obtaining the lactamate in the thin-film evaporator.