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Vapor-liquid equilibrium model for a partially miscible multicomponent system: isopropanol-acetone-ethanol-n-butanol-water

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5355685

Normal butanol, a potential diesel fuel additive, can be produced by the fermentation of paper pulp waste streams by Clostridia with isopropanol, acetone, and ethanol produced as byproducts. To design a distillation process for the recovery of n-butanol from fermentation broth, the vapor-liquid equilibria for the multicomponent system isopropanol-acetone-ethanol-n-butanol-water were modeled using Wilson equations to predict liquid activity coefficients. An extra parameter was added to the Wilson correlation to allow for the partial miscibility between butanol and water. The accuracy of the model was tested by comparing the predicted vapor composition with experimentally obtained values in the immiscible region. Even with the extra parameter, the model did not predict a miscibility gap between n-butanol and water, and the vapor-liquid equilibria were predicted with an accuracy of +- 0.15 mol fraction.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-26
OSTI ID:
5355685
Report Number(s):
ORNL/MIT-310
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English