REACTIVE DISTILLATION PROCESS AND PLANT FOR OBTAINING ACETIC ACID AND ALCOHOL FROM HYDROLYSIS OF METHYL ACETATE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for hydrolyzing methyl acetate that permits improvement of the purity of methanol and acetic acid, and a plant therefor.SOLUTION: The reactive distillation column is configured as a divided wall reactive distillation column 1 to bring a feed material containing water and methyl acetate into contact with a catalyst in a reaction space 19 comprising at least a first rectification zone 32, a first stripping zone 34 and a first reaction zone 33 to hydrolyze water and methyl acetate into methanol and acetic acid. The catalyst is incorporated into the first reaction zone 33. The reactive distillation column comprises a product space 29 comprising 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 the head portion 45 of a reaction space; a bottom product is discharged from the column sump 38; a second head product is discharged from the head portion 46 of the product space; and an intermediate product is discharged from the product space 29.