Acetaldehyde, like Formaldehyde, is a very important raw material for industrial chemistry. Despite of its high volatility, Acetaldehyde is produced as a pure liquid, yet favourably as close as possible to the place of consumption. An important method of manufacture is the catalytic conversion of gaseous Ethanol.

The Meissner process for the production of Acetaldehyde works analogously to the comparable Formaldehyde process with a Silver Catalyst for conversion of the Ethanol. The intermediate absorption of the generated Acetaldehyde in water is followed by a separation of the Acetaldehyde from the raw product by means of a first distillation step. The recovery of the unconverted Ethanol in a further distillation step enables to achieve very favourable raw material consumption figures.