Vapor-liquid equilibrium and topological analysis of ethyl propionate synthesized by reaction distillation

Abstract

Isobaric vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) data were measured for the binary systems propionic acid (1) + ethanol (2), propionic acid (1) + ethyl propionate (2) and propionic acid (1) + water (2) at 101.3 kPa. The Wilson, NRTL and UNIQUAC models were used to fit the binary VLE data. All the three models are applicable to all the binary systems. The binary interaction parameters were obtained by the regression of the experimental data, which can be used to describe the phase behavior of the quaternary system effectively. The phase equilibrium model was used to calculate the ternary and quaternary residue curve maps, and the topological analysis was performed. The results show that the obtained parameters and the thermodynamic model can be further used to model the reactive distillation process of ethyl propionate synthesis.