The vacuum effect on the yield and purity of lactide obtained by catalytic lactic acid oligomer depolymerization was investigated. As raw material for the lactic acid oligomer synthesis the L-lactic acid aqueous solution was used. It was shown that the highest yield of raw-lactide takes place via distillation under a vacuum. The raw-lactide in all fractions was purified by recrystallization from dry ethyl acetate. The highest yield of raw-lactide is observed at a vacuum of 10 ... 15 mbar. The distillation process of raw-lactide is complicated with chemical reactions. Control of the reaction, raw materials and products was performed using DTA, gel permeation chromatography, infrared spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography.