Separation of Azeotrope Mixture Composed of Acetone and Methanol using Various Entrainers

Abstract

The present work gives isobaric vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data for the binary system of acetone + methanol and its ternary system in the presence of two different entrainers, namely 1-butyl-3-methylmidazolium tetrafluoroborate [BMIM][BF4] (ionic liquid) and N,N dimethylformamide (DMFA) + propylene glycol mixture, respectively. [BMIM][BF4] was selected as the potential entrainers in this work are mainly due to its ionic liquid properties such as negligible vapour pressure and producing no less-volatile components at the top of the distillation column. The VLE measurements were made using a recirculating type of Othmer equilibrium still. The experimental data obtained for the binary system of acetone-methanol were compared with published literature data. To activity coefficient models, namely the NRTL and the UNIQUAC models were employed to correlate the experimental VLE data.

Keywords

• vapor-liquid equilibrium
• azeotrope
• entrainers
• ionic liquids
• activity coefficient