Malonic acid or propanedioic acid is a dicarboxylic acid.

One way to produce malonic acid is through a process of acid-catalyzed saponification of malonic acid ester. The preparation of malonic acids is generally described in Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd Edition (1981), Vol.14, 794-810. The best-known preparation is using chloroacetic acid (ClCH2CO2H) and chloropropanoic acid (CH3CHClCO2H) as feed. These feed are mixed in a reactor and reacted with sodium cyanide (NaCN) to form nitriles. Then the nitriles are saponified with sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH) at 105-110C to eliminate Ammonium permanganate (NH3.HMnO4). If the malonic acid is present as the alkali metal salt, the alkali cations can be removed via acid ion exchangers. Then, the free acid is isolated. However, this alkaline saponification has a major drawback because it requires at least stoichiometric amounts of alkali to neutralize again with strong acids. This process produces at least stoichiometric amounts of salt, which often have to be disposed of at considerable expense. Another way of malonic acid synthesis is via acidic saponification. This process can be done using diethyl malonate reacted with sulfuric acid (H2SO4) at 70C. The malonic acid can be obtained from concentrated aqueous solution by crystallization. The drawbacks of this process are unsatisfactory yields. The decomposition of malonic acids is a strong acid that can cause corrosion problems in scaling up the process. In acidic saponification process, the malonic ester is fed through the heated reactor at temperature 50-70C and 100-1000mbar. Then the aqueous solution flows through the vessel that contains resin catalyst to produce dissolved malonic acid. There are two options to isolate the dissolved malonic acid. The first option is to remove 50-95% of water azeotropically. The distillation process temperature were reduced at 40-60C. Then the organic solvent,e.g. ether is added in order to eliminate aqueous phase. The malonic acid can obtained from crystallization of organic solvent. Another option is to extract the dissolved malonic acid with an organic waterimmiscible solvent. Since the malonic acid is partially soluble, the extraction must be repeated until the malonic acid is crystallizes. The purities of malonic acid obtained in saponification process above 99% and the yields between 80-95% of the theoretical yield. A byproduct that generated from this process is the liberated alcohol.