Method for producing equilibrium peracetic acid and equilibrium peracetic acid obtainable by the method

1. A method for producing equilibrium peracetic acid by reacting acetic acid with an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution, having a content of 25 to 60% by weight hydrogen peroxide, in an aqueous reaction mixture, wherein the reaction is carried out in the presence of methanesulphonic acid as catalyst.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction mixture contains 0.1 to 2.0% by weight methanesulphonic acid.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction mixture does not contain additional solvent.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction mixture is produced by mixing acetic acid, aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution having a content of 25 to 60% by weight hydrogen peroxide, and methanesulphonic acid containing 1 to 40% by weight water.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide are used in a molar ratio in the range from 0.5 to 10.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction is carried out until the content of peroxyacetic acid has reached more than 90% of the content present in the chemical equilibrium.

7. An equilibrium peracetic acid comprising 2 to 24% by weight peroxyacetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, water and methanesulphonic acid, said equilibrium peracetic acetic being less corrosive than an equilibrium peracetic acid comprising sulfuric acid instead of methanesulphonic acid.

8. The equilibrium peracetic acid of claim 7 , further comprising 0 to 5% by weight surfactants, 0 to 10% by weight polymers containing carboxyl groups, and less than 1% by weight additional compounds.

9. The equilibrium peracetic acid of claim 7 , comprising from 3 to 17% by weight peroxyacetic acid.

10. The equilibrium peracetic acid of claim 7 , comprising from 2 to 12% by weight peroxyacetic acid and from 5 to 30% by weight methanesulphonic acid, and having a weight ratio of methanesulphonic acid to peroxyacetic acid of from 2 to 5.