Fructose Solubility in Mixed (Ethanol + Water) Solvent: Experimental Data and Comparison among Different Thermodynamic Models

Abstract

Fructose (1,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhex-2-one) is an important sugar, of great industrial interest, and may be produced by crystallization from its aqueous solution by adding ethanol as antisolvent. Published data of fructose solubility in mixed (ethanol + water) solvent are scarce in literature, but these data are essential for crystallization studies. In this work, fructose solubility in different ethanol concentrations was determined in temperatures from (283.15 to 333.15) K. A group of activity coefficient models developed in literature to determine phase diagrams of sugars were then selected and evaluated to predict fructose solubility in water and (ethanol + water) solvent. The following models were tested: a modified UNIQUAC, Bio-UNIFAC, A-UNIFAC, and mS-UNIFAC. Bio-UNIFAC was the best model to predict fructose solubility in water and in solutions with ethanol mass fractions in solvent up to 0.4; mS-UNIFAC was the best model for 0.4 to 0.6, and over this ethanol concentration the modified UNIQUAC was t...