METHOD OF PRODUCING VINYL ACETATE Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC C07C67/58 C07C69/01 C07C67/55 C07C67/54 C07C69/15 

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to an improved method of separating vinyl acetate from a gaseous mixture formed from reaction of ethylene with acetic acid and oxygen in gaseous phase over catalysts containing palladium or palladium compounds, involving: a) feeding said gaseous mixture, coming from reactor (5) for vinyl acetate, into a pre-dehydration column (7), b) cooling the gaseous mixture coming from the top part of the pre-dehydration column (7) to temperature lower than 85°C, preferably to temperature lower than 80°C and even more preferably to temperature between 55°C and 75°C in a counter-current heat exchanger (9), c) further cooling of the gaseous mixture or gas-liquid mixture coming from the heat exchange (9) at step b) to temperature ranging from -20°C to 50°C, wherein the obtained condensate is separated into an aqueous phase (17) and an organic phase (18), d) removing the aqueous phase formed at step c), e) recycling all or a portion of the organic phase formed at step c) as reflux into the top part of the pre-dehydration column (7) used at step a), and removing a portion of the organic phase which is not used as reflux, f) wet cleaning of the gas containing vinyl acetate which did not condense at step b) in a gas wet cleaning column (21) through aqueous solution of acetic acid, g) separating vinyl acetate, h) heating the recycled gas coming from the gas wet cleaning column (21), possibly along with fresh ethylene and/or the recycled gas coming from a CO₂ removal system (72) and/or blow-out gas in the counter-current heat exchanger (9), thereby reducing temperature of the gaseous mixture coming from the top part of the dehydration column (7), and i) feeding the recycled gas, possibly along with fresh ethylene and/or recycled gas coming from the CO₂ removal system (72) and/or blow-out gas pre-heated at step h) into the rector (5) to obtain vinyl acetate.

EFFECT: method significantly reduces power and steam consumption during the entire process of producing vinyl acetate.

13 cl, 1 dwg, 1 tbl, 1 ex