Liquid-Liquid Equilibria for the Aqueous Mixture of C5 Carboxylic Acid and Esteric Solvent at T = (298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K

Pentanoic acid can be produced industrially by the oxidation of amyl alcohol or byfermentation method. It can be used as a base material in lubricants for CFC substitutes.Pentanoic acid also appears in the byproducts of many industrial operations. This acid has beenstudied extensively in many applications such as in the nylon production process, extraction andback extraction of n-pentanoic acid in a fixed bed, extractive ultrafiltration for the removal ofpentanoic acid, and reactive extraction for the recovery of carboxylic acids. Liquid–liquidequilibrium data have been published for a number of ternary mixtures containing carboxylicacids [1-3]. In this work an esteric solvent was tested for recovery of pentanoic acid at T =(298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K and p = 101.3 kPa, for the first time. In this experiment, thephase compositions were measured and correlated with the thermodynamic models of NRTL andUNIQUAC. Experimental distribution coefficients and separation factors were evaluated overthe immiscibility regions.

Keywords:

Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium , Ternary Mixture , Pentanoic Acid