Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of a phenolic mixture from an aqueous waste stream

Abstract

Supercritical C0 2 can be used to remove contaminants from aqueous streams. Generally, the literature reports only pure contaminant distribution coefficients ( K values). In a more realistic situation, however, more than one contaminant can be expected to be present in water. In order to study the effect of cosolubility, we have measured the distribution coefficients when a mixture of four contaminants — phenol, m-cresol, p-chlorophenol, and benzene — were present in water. No effect of cosolubility on the distribution coefficients has been found for this system. However, these results along with recently available data 1 for a different mixture of contaminants have been analyzed to show that both strong solute-solute interactions and high relative volatilities need to act together if one contaminant is to act as an entrainer ano another contaminant.