Because acrylic acid and its esters have long been valued commercially, many other methods have been developed.
 Most have been abandoned for economic or environmental reasons.
An early method was the hydrocarboxylation of acetylene ("Reppe chemistry"):
This method requires nickel carbonyl, high pressures of carbon monoxide, and acetylene, which is relatively expensive compared to propylene.

Acrylic acid was once manufactured by the hydrolysis of acrylonitrile, a material derived from propene by ammoxidation, but this route was abandoned because it cogenerates ammonium side products, which must be disposed of.
 Other now abandoned precursors to acrylic acid include ethenone and ethylene cyanohydrin.
Because acrylic acid and its esters have long been valued commercially, many other methods have been developed.  Most have been abandoned for economic or environmental reasons. An early method was the hydrocarboxylation of acetylene ("Reppe chemistry"):
This method requires nickel carbonyl, high pressures of carbon monoxide, and acetylene, which is relatively expensive compared to propylene.
Acrylic acid was once manufactured by the hydrolysis of acrylonitrile, a material derived from propene by ammoxidation, but this route was abandoned because it cogenerates ammonium side products, which must be disposed of.  Other now abandoned precursors to acrylic acid include ethenone and ethylene cyanohydrin.
Acrylic acid