Phase equilibria of (water plus levunilic acid plus alcohol) ternary systems

Abstract

Liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data of the solubility (binodal) curves and tie-line end compositions were examined for mixtures of {(water (1) + levunilic acid (2) + isoamyl alcohol or hexanol or decanol (3)} at 298.15 K and 101.3 +/- 0.7 kPa. A type-1 LLE phase diagram was obtained for this ternary system. The relative mutual solubility of levunilic acid is higher in the water layers than in the isoamyl alcohol or hexanol or decanol layers. The reliability of the experimental tie-line data was confirmed by using the Othmer-Tobias correlation. The LLE data of the ternary systems were predicted by UNIFAC method. Distribution coefficients and separation factors were measured to evaluate the extracting capability of the solvents. Furthermore, LSER model equation has been obtained to calculate distribution coefficients (d(2)) and separation factors (s) with R-1(2) = 0.963 and R-2(2) = 0.844. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.