Of the possible synthetic routes to , only two have been developed into industrial processes. The feedstock, which varies from country to country, is either ethanol or .

In places where inexpensive ethanol is available, it is esterified with acetic acid using an acidic catalyst:



If the esterification is run continuously in a column, a yield of 99% can be attained.

Ethyl acetate is also formed in n-butane oxidation along with numerous other products and can be isolated economically (e.g., UCC in USA since 1983).

The Tishchenko reaction with acetaldehyde is the favored process in other countries where acetaldehyde is present in sufficient quantities as in Japan and Germany, or where the price of ethanol is artificially high:

The catalyst is a solution of A1 ethylate in an ethanollethyl acetate mixture, with zinc and chloride ions as promoters. The exothermic conversion of acetaldehyde takes place at 0-5 °C (with cooling) in this solution. At 95% conversion the selectivity is roughly 96% (based on CH₃CHO). The byproduct, acetaldol, is easily dehydrated; the resulting water hydrolyzes the ethylate to cause a rapid deactivation of the catalyst. Therefore another process, until now only described in patents, could possibly become important; this is the addition of acetic acid to ethylene: