Reactive distillation process and plant for obtaining acetic acid and alcohol from the hydrolysis of methyl acetate

A method and plant for obtaining acetic acid and methanol from the hydrolysis of methyl acetate by reactive distillation is disclosed. The reactive distillation column is configured as a divided wall reactive distillation column (1). A feed containing water and methyl acetate are brought into contact with a catalyst in a reactive space (19) to perform the hydrolysis of water and methyl acetate to methanol and acetic acid. The reactive space comprises at least a first rectification zone (32), a first stripping zone (34) and a first reaction zone (33). A catalyst is provided in the first reaction zone (33). The column further comprises a product space (29) with at least a second rectification zone (42) and a second stripping zone (44). The second stripping zone (44) shares at least a portion of the column sump (38) with the first stripping zone (34). A first head product is discharged from a reactive space head portion (45) and a bottom product is discharged from the column sump (38) and a second head product is discharged from a product space head portion (46) and an intermediate product is discharged from the product space (29).