US Patent 7304179 Method for producing methacrylic acid

The present invention provides a method for producing methacrylic acid through gas-phase catalytic oxidation of methacrolein or a methacrolein-containing gas with molecular oxygen or a gas containing molecular oxygen by the use of a fixed-bed multitubular reactor comprising a plurality of reaction tubes each having a catalyst layer therein, wherein the above catalyst layer is divided in the direction of the tube axis of a reaction tube into two or more layers, to thereby provide a plurality of reaction zones, and the catalyst is caused to be present in the catalyst layer in such a way that a reaction load ratio CRc(i) per unit mass of the catalyst in each reaction zone becomes 0.8 to 1.0.