Predicting the liquid phase equilibrium of multi-components extraction by thermodynamic models

Abstract

Extraction of multi-component systems is commonly used in the industry. To design new equipment or to simulate the performance of existing units, the liquid-liquid equilibrium data are very useful. The multi-component system equilibrium, therefore, can be estimated based on the parameters of a single-component system with correlations in estimating thermodynamic properties in liquid-liquid phase equilibrium with the Wohl, Van Laar, and Three-Suffix Margules equations. Thermodynamic models for the extraction of phenolic compounds using an aqueous acetone and an aqueous methanol solvents showed that the Three-Suffix Margules's model is more suitable for predicting the liquid equilibrium in multi-component extraction compared to the Wohl's, and Van Laar's model. The activity coefficients of methanol, acetone, phenol, o-Cresol, and p-Cresol in the extract phase and raffinate phase are really higher than unity. The activity coefficients of water and kerosene in their phases are close to one.