Vapor-liquid equilibrium: Part I. Vapor-liquid equilibrium at atmospheric pressure and at 55 deg C for binary and ternary systems containing n-hexane, ethyl alcohol and benzene. Part II. Prediction of binary vapor-liquid equilibrium data.

Abstract

This thesis comprises of two parts. The first part is the determination of vapor-liquid equilibrium data at atmospheric pressure and 55°C for the ternary system n-hexane-ethyl alcohol-benzene and for the three possible binary systems n-hexane-ethyl alcohol, n-hexane-benzene and ethyl alcohol-benzene which constituted the ternary system. A modified Gillespie equilibrium still is employed to conduct the investigation. The equilibrium data for the three binary systems and the ternary system appear to be consistent as shown from the thermodynamic consistency tests. The experimental results indicate that two binary systems, namely, n-hexane-ethyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol-benzene form azeotrope at 760 nm. Hg. and 55°C. The ternary system deviates considerably from ideal liquid phase behavior. However, no ternary azeotrope is found from the experiment. The second part presents a method for predicting binary vapor-liquid equilibrium data at various conditions if the equilibrium data for the system concerned are available over the complete concentration range at any one isothermal or isobaric condition. The proposed method is limited to nonazeotropic solutions.