Method for preparing acrylic acid

Abstract

A method for preparing acrylic acid, the method including: obtaining a first reaction product including lactic acid, a lactic acid dimer, water, and acrylic acid by supplying a lactic acid aqueous solution to a reactor to allow a dehydration reaction to proceed; supplying the first reaction product to a first cooling tower to separate the first reaction product into a lower fraction of the first cooling tower containing lactic acid and a lactic acid dimer and an upper fraction of the first cooling tower containing water and acrylic acid; obtaining a second reaction product by supplying the lower fraction of the first cooling tower to a lactic acid conversion tank and converting the lactic acid dimer into lactic acid; separating lactic acid from the second reaction product to recover lactic acid; and obtaining acrylic acid by separating acrylic acid from the upper fraction of the first cooling tower.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.