Ternary azeotrope

In the first class, azeotropic distillation, the extraneous mass-separating agent is relatively volatile and is known as an entrainer. This entrainer forms either a low-boiling binary azeotrope with one of the keys or, more often, a ternary azeotrope containing both keys. The latter kind of operation is feasible only if condensation of the overhead vapor results in two liquid phases, one of which contains the bulk of one of the key components and the other contains the bulk of the entrainer. A t3q)ical scheme is shown in Fig. 3.10. The mixture (A -I- B) is fed to the column, and relatively pure A is taken from the column bottoms. A ternary azeotrope distilled overhead is condensed and separated into two liquid layers in the decanter. One layer contains a mixture of A -I- entrainer which is returned as reflux. The other layer contains relatively pure B. If the B layer contains a significant amount of entrainer, then this layer may need to be fed to an additional column to separate and recycle the entrainer and produce pure B. 

The 95% ethanol of Everclear is not an arbitrary concentration that the producer decided to stop at, mind you. It so happens that 95% ethanol and 5% water is a constant boiling mix that no more ethanol can be purified from. That 5% water is there to stay There are ways to remove that water such as producing a ternary azeotrope by the addition of benzene, but they are kind of a hassle and may... 

Revised material in Section 5 includes an extensive tabulation of binary and ternary azeotropes comprising approximately 850 entries. Over 975 compounds have values listed for viscosity, dielectric constant, dipole moment, and surface tension. Whenever possible, data for viscosity and dielectric constant are provided at two temperatures to permit interpolation for intermediate temperatures and also to permit limited extrapolation of the data. The dipole moments are often listed for different physical states. Values for surface tension can be calculated over a range of temperatures from two constants that can be fitted into a linear equation. Also extensively revised and expanded are the properties of combustible mixtures in air. A table of triple points has been added. 

Isoprene [78-79-5] (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) is a colorless, volatile Hquid that is soluble in most hydrocarbons but is practically insoluble in water. Isoprene forms binary azeotropes with water, methanol, methylamine, acetonitrile, methyl formate, bromoethane, ethyl alcohol, methyl sulfide, acetone, propylene oxide, ethyl formate, isopropyl nitrate, methyla1 (dimethoxymethane), ethyl ether, and / -pentane. Ternary azeotropes form with water—acetone, water—acetonitrile, and methyl formate—ethyl bromide (8). Typical properties of isoprene are Hsted in Table 1. 

The physical and thermodynamic properties of benzene are shown in Table 1 (2). Azeotrope data for benzene with selected compounds are shown in Table 2 (3). Benzene forms minimum-boiling azeotropes with many alcohols and hydrocarbons. Benzene also forms ternary azeotropes. 

Carbon tetrachloride readily dissolves stannic chloride, SnCl, but not ferric chloride, FeCl. Carbon tetrachloride forms a large number of binary and several ternary azeotropic mixtures a partial Hst of the former is shown in Table 3. 

Eig. 14. Schematic isobatic phase diagrams for ternary azeotropic mixtures, (a) Homogeneous Hquid phase at all boiling points (b) heterogeneous... 

Podebush Sequence forPthanol—Water Separation. When ethyl acetate is used as the entrainer to break the ethanol—water azeotrope the residue curve map is similar to the one shown in Figure 21d, ie, the ternary azeotrope is homogeneous. Otherwise the map is the same as for ethanol—water—benzene. In such... 

Esters of medium volatility are capable of removing the water formed by distillation. Examples are propyl, butyl, and amyl formates, ethyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl acetates, and the methyl and ethyl esters of propionic, butyric, and valeric acids. In some cases, ternary azeotropic mixtures of alcohol, ester, and water are formed. This group is capable of further subdivision with ethyl acetate, all of the ester is removed as a vapor mixture with alcohol and part of the water, while the balance of the water accumulates in the system. With butyl acetate, on the other hand, all of the water formed is removed overhead with part of the ester and alcohol, and the balance of the ester accumulates as a high boiler in the system. 

A summary of physical properties of ethyl alcohol is presented ia Table 1. Detailed information on the vapor pressure, density, and viscosity of ethanol can be obtained from References 6—14. A listing of selected biaary and ternary azeotropes of ethanol is compiled ia Reference 15. 

The checkers found this distillation to require about 15 hours. The distillate is the ternary azeotrope. It consists of 8.5% water, 9.2% allyl alcohol, and 82.2% benzene, and boils at 68.2°. The aqueous layer contains some allyl alcohol, though this loss is insignificant, since only about 15 ml. of the aqueous layer is obtained from each mole of lactic acid used. 

By redistillation with an additional substance which can form a ternary azeotropic mixture (as in ethanol-... 

Azeotropic compositions are rare for terpolymerization and Ham 14 has shown that it follows from the simplified eqs. 38-40 that ternary azeotropes should not exist. Nonetheless, a few systems for which a ternary azeotrope exists have now been described (this is perhaps a proof of the limitations of the simplified equations) and equations for predicting whether an azeotropic composition will exist for copolymerizations of three or more monomers have been formulated.20113 This work also shows that a ternary azeotrope can, in principle, exist even in circumstances where there is no azeotropic composition for any of the three possible binary copolymerizations of tire monomers involved. 

Water and ethanol form a low boiling point azeotrope. So, water cannot be completely separated from ethanol by straight distillation. To produce absolute (100 per cent) ethanol it is necessary to add an entraining agent to break the azeotrope. Benzene is an effective entrainer and is used where the product is not required for food products. Three columns are used in the benzene process. Column 1. This column separates the ethanol from the water. The bottom product is essentially pure ethanol. The water in the feed is carried overhead as the ternary azeotrope of ethanol, benzene and water (24 per cent ethanol, 54 per cent benzene, 22 per cent water). The overhead vapour is condensed and the condensate separated in a decanter into, a benzene-rich phase (22 per cent ethanol, 74 per cent benzene, 4 per cent water) and a water-rich phase (35 per cent ethanol, 4 per cent benzene, 61 per cent water). The benzene-rich phase is recycled to the column as reflux. A benzene make-up stream is added to the reflux to make good any loss of benzene from the process. The water-rich phase is fed to the second column. 

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