Activity coefficients, liquid phase prediction

Pividal, K. A., Sterner, C., Sandler, S. 1., and Orbey, H., 1992. Vapor-liquid equilibrium from infinite dilution activity coefficients Measurement and prediction of oxygenated fuel additives with alkanes. Fluid Phase Eq., 72 227-249. 

The liquid phase is a non-ideal solution, for which liquid activity coefficients can be predicted with good accuracy by the Wilson equation (Equation 1.36). The vapor phase is assumed to behave as an ideal gas at the relatively low pressure of 35 kPa. Under these conditions, the K-values may be calculated by Equation 1.29a. 

Activity coefficients are generally predicted by one of the Wilson, UNIQUAC, NRTL, or van Laar methods. The Wilson and UNIQUAC methods are presented briefly here. Most chemical engineering thermodynamics textbooks have a section on phase equilibria that can provide more detailed descriptions. The Wilson equation [1] is only used with miscible fluids. For highly non-ideal fluids and for systems in which liquid-liquid splitting occurs, the NRTL method is applicable [2], When no experimental data are available, the UNIQUAC method can be used [3,4]. 

Example 8 Calculation of Rate-Based Distillation The separation of 655 lb mol/h of a bubble-point mixture of 16 mol % toluene, 9.5 mol % methanol, 53.3 mol % styrene, and 21.2 mol % ethylbenzene is to be earned out in a 9.84-ft diameter sieve-tray column having 40 sieve trays with 2-inch high weirs and on 24-inch tray spacing. The column is equipped with a total condenser and a partial reboiler. The feed wiU enter the column on the 21st tray from the top, where the column pressure will be 93 kPa, The bottom-tray pressure is 101 kPa and the top-tray pressure is 86 kPa. The distillate rate wiU be set at 167 lb mol/h in an attempt to obtain a sharp separation between toluene-methanol, which will tend to accumulate in the distillate, and styrene and ethylbenzene. A reflux ratio of 4.8 wiU be used. Plug flow of vapor and complete mixing of liquid wiU be assumed on each tray. K values will be computed from the UNIFAC activity-coefficient method and the Chan-Fair correlation will be used to estimate mass-transfer coefficients. Predict, with a rate-based model, the separation that will be achieved and back-calciilate from the computed tray compositions, the component vapor-phase Miirphree-tray efficiencies. 

There are many types of phase diagrams in addition to the two cases presented here these are summarized in detail by Zief and Wilcox (op. cit., p. 21). Solid-liquid phase equilibria must be determined experimentally for most binaiy and multicomponent systems. Predictive methods are based mostly on ideal phase behavior and have limited accuracy near eutectics. A predic tive technique based on extracting liquid-phase activity coefficients from vapor-liquid equilib-... 

Brian, P. L. T. (1965) Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundamentals 4, 100. Predicting activity coefficients from liquid phase solubility limits. 

Given a prediction of the liquid-phase activity coefficients, from say the NRTL or UNIQUAC equations, then Equations 4.69 and 4.70 can be solved simultaneously for x and x . There are a number of solutions to these equations, including a trivial solution corresponding with x[ = x[. For a solution to be meaningful ... 

The most important aspect of the simulation is that the thermodynamic data of the chemicals be modeled correctly. It is necessary to decide what equation of state to use for the vapor phase (ideal gas, Redlich-Kwong-Soave, Peng-Robinson, etc.) and what model to use for liquid activity coefficients [ideal solutions, solubility parameters, Wilson equation, nonrandom two liquid (NRTL), UNIFAC, etc.]. See Sec. 4, Thermodynamics. It is necessary to consider mixtures of chemicals, and the interaction parameters must be predictable. The best case is to determine them from data, and the next-best case is to use correlations based on the molecular weight, structure, and normal boiling point. To validate the model, the computer results of vapor-liquid equilibria could be checked against experimental data to ensure their validity before the data are used in more complicated computer calculations. 

For the purpose of this case study we will select Isopropyl alcohol as the crystallization solvent and assume that the NRTL-SAC solubility curve for Form A has been confirmed as reasonably accurate in the laboratory. If experimental solubility data is measured in IPA then it can be fitted to a more accurate (but non predictive) thermodynamic model such as NRTL or UNIQUAC at this point, taking care with analysis of the solid phase in equilibrium. As the activity coefficient model only relates to species in the liquid phase we can use the same model with each different set of AHm and Tm data to calculate the solubility of the other polymorphs of Cimetidine, as shown in Figure 21. True polymorphs only differ from each other in the solid phase and are otherwise chemically identical. 

Figure 7 shows the predicted vapor-phase mole fractions of HC1 at 25°C as a function of the liquid-phase molality of HC1 for a constant NaCl molality of 3. Also included are predicted vapor-phase mole fractions of HC1 when the interaction parameter A23 is taken as zero. There are unfortunately no experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data available for the HC1-NaCl-FLO system however, considering the excellent description of the liquid-phase activity coefficients and the low total pressures, it is expected that predicted mole fractions would be within 2-3% of the experimental values. 

Thus, Eq. (KKK) and the analogous logarithmic form of Eq. (Ill) in Box 9.3 predicts that a plot of log Kp against log pL for the partitioning of a series of compounds into liquid particles or into a liquid layer on particles should be a straight line with a slope of 1 if the activity coefficients in the liquid phase, yom, remain constant. 

The same reference (standard) state, f is chosen for the two phases, so that it cancels on both sides of equation 39. The products stffi and y" are referred to as activities. Because equation 39 holds for each component of a liquid—liquid system, it is possible to predict liquid—liquid phase splitting when the activity coefficients of the individual components in a multicomponent system are known. These values can come from vapor—liquid equilibrium experiments or from prediction methods developed for phase-equilibrium problems (4,5,10). Some binary systems can be modeled satisfactorily in this manner, but only rough estimations appear to be possible for multicomponent systems because activity coefficient models are not yet sufficiendy developed in this area. 

It is very satisfying and useful that the COSMO-RS model—in contrast to empirical group contribution models—is able to access the gas phase in addition to the liquid state. This allows for the prediction of vapor pressures and solvation free energies. Also, the large amount of accurate, temperature-dependent vapor pressure data can be used for the parameterization of COSMO-RS. On the other hand, the fundamental difference between the liquid state and gas phase limits the accuracy of vapor pressure prediction, while accurate, pure compound vapor pressure data are available for most chemical compounds. Therefore, it is preferable to use experimental vapor pressures in combination with calculated activity coefficients for vapor-liquid equilibria predictions in most practical applications. 

Although COSMO-RS generally provides good predictions of chemical potentials and activity coefficients of molecules in liquids, its accuracy in many cases is not sufficient for the simulation of chemical processes and plants, because even small deviations can have large effects on the behavior of a complex process. Therefore, the chemical engineer typically prefers to use empirical thermodynamic models, such as the UNIQUAC and NRTL, for the description of liquid-phase activity coefficients with... 

Metal concentrations and metal activities in the pore water are dependent upon both the metal concentration in the solid phase and the composition of both the solid and the liquid phase. In matrix extrapolation, and with emphasis on the pore water exposure route, it is therefore of great practical importance to have a quantitative understanding of the distribution of heavy metals over the solid phase and the pore water. A relatively simple approach for calculating the distribution of heavy metals in soils is the equilibrium-partitioning (EP) concept (Shea 1988 van der Kooij et al. 1991). The EP concept assumes that chemical concentrations among environmental compartments are at equilibrium and that the partitioning of metals among environmental compartments can be predicted based on partition coefficients. The partition coefficient, Kp, used to calculate the distribution of heavy metals over solid phase and pore water is defined as... 

The extension of ideal phase analysis of the Maxwell-Stefan equations to nonideal liquid mixtures requires the sufficiently accurate estimation of composition-dependent mutual diffusion coefficients and the matrix of thermodynamic factors. However, experimental data on mutual diffusion coefficients are rare, and prediction methods are satisfactory only for certain types of liquid mixtures. The thermodynamic factor may be calculated from activity coefficient models such as NRTL or UNIQUAC, which have adjustable parameters estimated from experimental phase equilibrium data. The group contribution method of UNIFAC may also be helpful, as it has a readily available parameter table consisting of mam7 species. If, however, reliable data are not available, then the averaged values of the generalized Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficients and the matrix of thermodynamic factors are calculated at some mean composition between x0i and xzi. Hence, the matrix of zero flux mass transfer coefficients [k ] is estimated by... 

The High-Danner equation of state performs well for predictions of activity coefficients for ether-ether systems and for aromatic polymers at infinite dilution. The drawbacks of High-Danner model are the small number of subgroups and lower accuracy compared to the UNIFAC-FV model. The High-Danner model is the only model that was derived as an equation of state and that has been used as an equation of state for prediction. The other two models are not capable of representing pressure dependence in the vapor or liquid phases. 

The development of equations that successfully predict multicomponent phase equilibrium data from binary data with remarkable accuracy for engineering purposes not only improves the accuracy of tray-to-tray calculations but also lessens the amount of experimentation required to establish the phase equilibrium data. Such equations are the Wilson equation (13), the non-random two-liquid (NRTL) equation (14), and the local effective mole fractions (LEMF) equation (15, 16), a two-parameter version of the basically three-parameter NRTL equation. Larson and Tassios (17) showed that the Wilson and NRTL equations predict accurately ternary activity coefficients from binary data Hankin-son et al. (18) demonstrated that the Wilson equation predicts accurately... 

In either case the relative distributions between the separable liquid and vapor phases are predicted from the pure component vapor pressures Pi°, liquid phase activity coefficients, y/s, and imperfection-pressure coefficients Oi s. Using these three quantities, the relative distribution is expressed as... 

Predictions of adsorption equilibria by ideal-adsorbed-solution theory are usually satisfactory when the specific amount adsorbed is less than a third of the saturation value for mono-layer coverage. At higher adsorbed amounts, appreciable negative deviations from ideality are promoted by differences in size of the adsorbate molecules and by adsorbent heterogeneity. One must then have recourse to Eq. (14.123). The difficulty is in obtaining valnes of the activity coefficients, which are strong functions of both spreading pressnre and temperatnre. This is in contrast to activity coefficients for liquid phases, which for most applications are insensitive to pressure. This topic is treated by Talu et ai. ... 

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