Method for recovery of acetic acid from an aqueous solution thereof

A method for recovering acetic acid from an aqueous solution thereof, comprising:

• feeding into a liquid-liquid extraction column a plurality of aqueous liquid input feed streams of different acetic acid concentrations at different locations of the liquid-liquid extraction column based on feed stream acetic acid concentration, including in the liquid-liquid extraction column a guard bed near the top thereof containing a catalyst for esterification of alcohol by reaction with acetic acid to form a corresponding ester,
• feeding into the liquid-liquid extraction column an extraction solvent into which acetic acid is extracted to reduce the concentration of acetic acid, forming a water-rich acetic acid depleted aqueous stream exiting at the bottom of the liquid-liquid extraction column for further treatment and a water-poor fraction containing extraction solvent and water exiting at the top of the liquid-liquid extraction column,
• feeding the water-poor fraction from the liquid-liquid extraction column to an azeotropic distillation column in fluid communication and downstream of the extraction column where the water-poor fraction is distilled to separate a majority of the remaining water from acetic add,
• feeding an entrainer into the azeotropic distillation column to form an azeotropic mixture with water and running the azeotropic distillation column, and
• recovering from the top of the azeotropic distillation column, the azeotropic mixture including water and the entrainer, and from the bottom of the column an acetic acid-rich and water poor liquid stream.