Vinyl acetate production process

Abstract

A process for the production of vinyl acetate is disclosed. The process comprises reacting ethylene, acetic acid, and oxygen in the presence of a catalyst to produce a reaction mixture comprising vinyl acetate, ethylene, carbon dioxide, acetic acid and ethylene glycol diacetate. The reaction mixture is separated to a gas stream comprising ethylene, oxygen, and carbon dioxide and a crude vinyl acetate stream comprising vinyl acetate, acetic acid and ethylene glycol diacetate. An ethylene glycol diacetate stream, which comprises at least 50 wt % of ethylene glycol diacetate, is isolated from the crude vinyl acetate stream and hydrolyzed to recover acetic acid. Recovered acetic acid may be recycled to the acetoxidation reaction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.