Continuous process for the production of derivatives of saturated carboxylic acids

A continuous process for the oxidative cleavage of esters of unsaturated carboxylic acids for the production of saturated carboxylic acids, characterized by comprising the steps of:

• a) feeding to a first continuous reactor at least an ester of an unsaturated carboxylic acid, an oxidizing compound and a catalyst capable of catalyzing the oxidation reaction of the olefinic double bond to obtain an intermediate compound containing vicinal diols;
• b) feeding to a second continuous reactor said intermediate compound, a compound containing oxygen and a catalyst capable of catalyzing the oxidation reaction of the vicinal diols to carboxylic groups, to obtain saturated monocarboxylic acids (i) and esters of saturated carboxylic acids with more than one acid function (ii);
• c) separating the saturated monocarboxylic acids (i) from the esters of carboxylic acids having more than one acid function (ii);
• d) hydrolyzing the esters of carboxylic acids having more than one acid function (ii) obtaining alcohol and saturated carboxylic acids having more than one acid function,
• wherein in said steps a) and b the operations to feed reagents and to remove products take place simultaneously for the entire duration of the process, and in each of said step the process conditions remain substantially unchanged.