Process for preparing aminoacetaldehyde dialkyl acetals

Process for preparing an aminoacetaldehyde dialkyl acetal, which comprises

• reacting a halogenoacetaldehyde dialkyl acetal with ammonia or an alkylamine in an aqueous medium in the simultaneous presence, from the start of the reaction, of a hydroxide of an alkali metal or of an alkaline earth metal,
• distilling the resulting reaction mixture to recover the thereby produced aminoacetaldehyde dialkyl acetal in the form of an aqueous solution as distilled product, and
• purifying the recovered distilled product acetal aqueous solution by adding thereto an organic solvent having a boiling point of about 60.degree. to 150.degree. C. and selected from the group consisting of aliphatic hydrocarbons, alicyclic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon halides, as azeotropic removal solvent, and azeotropically removing the attendant water from the resulting mixture in the presence of said azeotropic removal solvent to provide such purified acetal product substantially free of attendant water and of such removal solvent.