Abstract
Tetrahydrofuran (THF) is produced by the dehydrocyclization of 1,4-butanediol. The key step in purification is breaking of the THF/water azeotrope. Separation schemes based on azeotropic distillation are considered in this paper. The paper presents a good example of a typical industrial application of phase equilibria that uses a combination of data from the literature, UNIFAC estimations, and experimental measurements. Process development work included selection of entrainers, measurement and evaluation of phase equilibrium data, and the use of a commercial process simulator to model proposed schemes. Normal pentane was found to be the best entrainer of the several evaluated. Purification schemes based on n-pentane are compared with a conventional distillation method.
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