It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for producing aliphatic carboxylic acid, which can stabilize operation of a distillation column upon production of aliphatic carboxylic acid by reducing a water content in an aqueous aliphatic carboxylic acid solution by a distillation column, and can shorten a time during the non-steady state such as at starting up of distillation column operation. The present invention is directed to a process for producing aliphatic carboxylic acid, which comprises an azeotropic distillation step of supplying an aqueous aliphatic carboxylic acid solution and an azeotropic solvent to an azeotropic distillation column to perform distillation, separating an azeotrope containing the azeotropic solvent and water as a distillate, and recovering aliphatic carboxylic acid with a reduced water content as bottom liquid, characterized in that a target value of an amount of the azeotropic solvent to be supplied is set depending on an amount of water in the aqueous aliphatic carboxylic acid solution supplied to the azeotropic distillation column, and the amount of the azeotropic solvent to be supplied is controlled at the target value.
本发明的目的是提供一种生产脂肪族
羧酸的方法,通过在蒸馏塔中减少
水含量来稳定脂肪族
羧酸的生产过程,并缩短非稳态状态(如蒸馏塔操作启动时)的时间。本发明涉及一种生产脂肪族
羧酸的方法,包括供应含
水脂肪族
羧酸溶液和共沸溶剂至共沸蒸馏塔进行蒸馏的共沸蒸馏步骤,分离含有共沸溶剂和
水的共沸物作为馏出物,并以减少
水含量的脂肪族
羧酸作为底液回收,其特征在于根据供应至共沸蒸馏塔的含
水脂肪族
羧酸溶液中的
水量设定共沸溶剂的供应量目标值,并控制共沸溶剂的供应量达到目标值。