Abstract: There is herein disclosed a process for efficiently preparing, from an &agr;-hydroxycarboxylic amide and an alcohol in an industrially advantageous manner, an &agr;-hydroxycarboxylate which is useful as any of raw materials for solvents, food additives, perfumes, various organic medicines and the like. According to the present invention, there is provided a process for preparing an &agr;-hydroxycarboxylate which comprises the step of reacting an &agr;-hydroxycarboxylic amide and an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst in a liquid phase, while an ammonia concentration in a reaction solution is maintained at 0.1% by weight or less by discharging generated ammonia as a gas into a gaseous phase.

Abstract: A process for continuously producing an alkyl ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid by ester interchange reaction represented by the following reaction scheme: ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 is hydrogen or methyl, R.sup.2 is an alkyl having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, R.sup.3 is an alkyl having 2 to 20 carbon atoms or a mono- or polyhydroxyalkyl having 2 to 20 carbon atoms such that R.sup.2 OH has a boiling point lower than that of R.sup.3 OH. The reaction is continuously carried out in a continuous multi-stage distillation column while simultaneously removing the low-boiling R.sup.2 OH from the reaction zone by distillation, thereby shifting the equilibrium toward the product side to enhance the production of the target alkyl ester.

Abstract: Provided is a process for producing acetic acid by carrying out reaction of methyl formate in the presence of a Group VIII metal catalyst, at least one iodine compound, acetic acid and carbon monoxide, continuously drawing a reaction mixture from a reactor, introducing the reaction mixture into a flash distillation zone, separating an evaporated component and an unevaporated component, recycling the unevaporated component to the reaction zone, and obtaining acetic acid from the evaporated component, wherein formic acid and methyl formate are allowed to coexist in the flash distillation zone and/or the recycling zone. According to this process, no loss of methyl formate and formic acid is caused and only methyl formate is used as a starting material with basically requiring no supply of carbon monoxide.