Patent attributes
A transesterification process of methyl acetate is provided. The process comprises: (a) performing a first reactive distillation of a methyl acetate solution and a first alcohol to generate a first ester and a first mixture; (b) performing a first distillation of a first part of the first mixture to generate a second mixture; and (c) performing a second reactive distillation of a first part of the second mixture and a second alcohol to generate a second ester; wherein the respective one of the first and second alcohols is a limiting reagent. The transesterification process provided in the present invention could highly reduce the investing production cost of the transesterification of the by-product, methyl acetate, in the conventional polyvinyl alcohol plants.
