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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Separation of Aldehydes and Reactive Ketones from Mixtures Using a Bisulfite Extraction Protocol
Published on: April 2, 2018
Study on vapor-liquid equilibrium and process design for separation of ethyl propionate-n-propanol azeotropes with
Zilong Yu1, Chun Zhao2, Xiuyu Du1
1College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qingdao Application Technology Innovation Center of Photoelectric Biosensing for Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment, Shandong Sino-Japanese Center for Collaborative Research of Carbon Nanomaterials, Qingdao University Qingdao 266071 Shandong China xuxianzhen@qdu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The mixture of ethyl propionate and n-propanol is prone to form azeotropes, and the separation of such azeotropes can balance both economic and environmental goals, contributing to sustainable development. In this study, COSMOthermX was used to screen ionic liquids (ILs) for the separation of azeotropes. The selected ILs include [P4,4,4,4][OAc], [P1,4,4,4][OAc], and [N2,2,2,2][OAc]. Vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) experiments and NRTL model fitting showed that these ILs significantly changed the relative volatility of ethyl propionate and n-propanol, effectively eliminating the azeotrope at certain IL mole fractions, among which [N2,2,2,2][OAc] showed the best performance with a minimum mole fraction of 0.070. The analysis of σ-profiles, electrostatic potential (ESP), and radial distribution function (RDF) showed that the interaction between the ILs and n-propanol was stronger. The extractive distillation process was simulated using Aspen Plus to achieve high-purity separation and efficient recovery. The process parameters were optimized, and the TAC required for [N2,2,2,2][OAc] was calculated to be 834.59 k$. This study systematically explored the influence of ionic liquids on the EP + NPA azeotropic system through comprehensive experiments, theoretical analysis, and process simulation, clarified the separation mechanism of the EP + NPA azeotropic system, and provided valuable guidance for solvent recovery.
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