Industrial Synthesis
There are three commercially used ways of preparing benzoic acid.
1
Once
synthesized, the benzoic acid is then dissolved in sodium hydroxide, forming
sodium benzoate and water. The water is then evaporated off.
Method 2 is particularly attractive to the chemical industry because it used cheap raw materials and is non-polluting to the environment.
Roughly 126000 tonnes a year are estimated to be produced in the US, the majority of which is produced by companies wishing to use it to make other chemicals.