Thermodynamics Research Center / ThermoML | Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics

ABSTRACT

Experimental results are presented for the (liquid + liquid), (solid + liquid) and (solid + liquid + liquid) equilibria occurring in the downstream process of a typical example for the Biphasic Acid Scavenging Utilizing Ionic Liquids (BASIL)-processes. In a BASIL process an organic base is used to catalyze a chemical reaction and, at the same time, to scavenge an acid that is an undesired side product of that reaction. The particular example of a BASIL process treated here is the reaction of 1-butanol and acetylchloride to butylacetate and hydrochloric acid, where the acid is scavenged by the organic base 1-methyl imidazole (1-MIM) resulting in the ionic liquid 1-methyl imidazolium chloride. The reaction results in a two-phase system as butylacetate and the ionic liquid reveal a large liquid liquid miscibility gap. The organic base has to be recovered. This is commonly achieved by treating the ionic liquid rich liquid phase with an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide (i.e., converting the ionic liquid to the organic base) and extracting the organic base by an appropriate organic solvent (e.g., 1-propanol). The work presented here deals in experimental work with the (liquid + liquid), (solid + liquid) and (solid + liquid + liquid) phase equilibria that are encountered in such extraction processes. Experimental results are reported for temperatures between about 298 K and 333 K: for the solubility of NaCl in several solvents (1-propanol, 1-MIM), (water + 1-MIM), (1-propanol + 1-MIM), (water + 1-propanol), and (water + 1-propanol + 1-MIM) and for the (liquid + liquid) equilibrium as well as for the (solid + liquid + liquid) equilibrium of the ternary system (NaCl + water + 1-propanol) and of the quaternary system (NaCl + water + 1-propanol + 1-MIM).