Acetic acid is evaporated and after adding catalyst is passed through a series of coils placed in a furnace. The Pyrolysis of acetic acid takes place in the coils placed in the furnace and products of phrolysis are ketene and water. The reaction can be represented by
The exit gases from the furnace i.e. ketene, water, unconverted acid etc. are immediately cooled in a series of coolers to condense water and unconverted acid. The condensate from these coolers is sent to acid recovery section to recover acetic acid. The ketene gas is scrubbed with acetic acid in a series of scrubber towers to produce acetic anhydride.
The reaction can be represented by the following equation:
The over flow from the scrubbers i.e. Crude acetic anhydride subjected to fractional distillation to obtain pure acetic anhydride. The whole process is carried under reduced pressure.
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