Patent ID: 8710259

Claim:
A process for preparing vinyl acetate monomer in a heterogeneously catalyzed, continuous gas phase process by reacting ethylene with acetic acid and oxygen in a reactor, and a) separating the product gas stream comprising essentially ethylene, vinyl acetate monomer, acetic acid, water, carbon dioxide and further inert gases in different distillation processes comprising a preliminary dewatering column, a cycle gas scrubber and an azeotrope column, and b) recycling an ethylene- and CO 2 -containing cycle gas stream into the reactor, by c) compressing the cycle gas stream in a cycle gas compressor before recycling into the reactor, and d) branching off a substream of the cycle gas on the suction side or the pressure side of the cycle gas compressor and feeding it to a CO 2 scrubbing, and e) prior to the CO 2 scrubbing, washing it in a water scrubber, wherein f) the substream, after the CO 2 scrubbing, is supplied to the cycle gas via a jet compressor, together with ethylene as the motive medium, on the pressure side of the cycle gas compressor and downstream of the withdrawal of the substream to the CO 2 scrubbing.