Prediction of salt effect in vapour-liquid equilibria of system ethyl acetate-ethanol at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Experimental determination of vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data of the azeotropic system ethyl acetate-ethanol in presence of three inorganic salts, namely, lithium chloride, lithium bromide and lithium iodide has been studied at atmospheric pressure (98.6 ± 0.03 kPa). The concentration of salts in the system are varied in the range of 5%-20% (weight %). It is noticed that all the three salts have pronounced effect of the VLE of the system, even to the extent that the azeotrope is completely eliminated at higher concentration of both lithium bromide and lithium iodide. A semi-empirical model similar to that of Furter model is suggested which can predict the vapour composition and boiling temperature of the system in presence of the salts with a fair degree of accuracy. The system in absence of the salt is found to be thermodynamically consistent according to the Herington criteria.