Phase equilibria in systems containing o-cresol, p-cresol, carbon dioxide, and ethanol at 323.15–473.15 K and 10–35 MPa

Abstract

Phase equilibria in binary and ternary systems containing o-cresol, p-cresol, carbon dioxide, and ethanol have been investigated experimentally at temperatures between 323.15 K and 473.15 K and pressures ranging from 10 MPa to 35 MPa. The experimental results provide a systematic basis of phase equilibrium data, yielding the effect of temperature on the influence of the position of the methyl groups of cresols that are in phase equilibria with carbon dioxide. Based on the different solubilities of the cresol isomers in carbon dioxide, the separation of o-cresol and p-cresol was investigated. The dependence of the separation factor between both cresol isomers on concentration, temperature, and pressure is obtained from experiments in the ternary system, o-cresol+ p-cresol+carbon dioxide. The influence of ethanol added to each of the binary systems, cresol isomer+carbon dioxide, in order to enhance the solubility of the cresols in the carbon dioxide-rich phase is also shown. The experimental data have been correlated using seven different equations of state, whereof four explicitly account for intermolecular association: Statistical Association Fluid Theory (SAFT) by Chapman, Gubbins, Huang and Radosz, the SAFT modification by Pfohl and Brunner for near-critical fluids, a modified cubic-plus-association equation of state (CPA EOS) according to the ideas by Tassios et al., and one of the EOS by Anderko. The mixing rule proposed by Mathias, Klotz, and Prausnitz, with two binary interaction parameters per binary system influencing intermolecular attractive forces, is used for all EOS as a basis for an objective comparison of the EOS.