The invention discloses a preparation method of MHA (2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)
butyric acid). According to the preparation method,
nitrile generated by a reaction of a hydrocyanic acid
aqueous solution and (methylthio)
propionaldehyde is subjected to acidolysis and then treated to obtain an organic phase containing MHA and an aqueous phase containing
ammonium salt, the organic phase is subjected to concentrating under reduced pressure and
organic solvent treatment or is subjected to direct centrifugal treatment to remove
ammonium salt, and MHA is obtained; and the
ammonium salt can be further purified to obtain high-purity ammonium salt by-product, and brine waste is not generated. During the preparation process, the used
organic solvent can be recycled for application, the used hydrocyanic acid
aqueous solution has no
tail gas
incineration, hydrocyanic acid rectification is not required, and the
energy consumption is low; and the organic phase and the aqueous phase are treated separately, compared with direct water removal without phase-splitting, the influence of the ammonium salt on water
distillation is reduced, the condition that
mass transfer and
heat transfer during water
distillation are affected by a great amount of ammonium salt is avoided, so that the water
distillation quantity is reduced greatly while
energy consumption is reduced, and steam is saved.