LIQUID-LIQUID AND VAPOR LIQUID BEHAVIOR OF OLEYL ALCOHOL APPLIED TO EXTRACTIVE FERMENTATION PROCESSING

Investigations into the product recovery step of the extractive ethano l fermentation through partition experiments for ethanol-water-Adol(R) 85 NF ternary systems were undertaken. Experimental liquid-liquid equ ilibrium data for this ternary system were compared with numerical pre dictions based on the UNIFAC method. The influence of salts on distrib ution coefficients for ethanol extraction was also examined. An improv ement in extraction characteristics was observed for ternary systems w ith salts. Flash vaporisation was used to subsequently examine the eff ect of liquid-liquid ternary compositions on vapour-liquid partitionin g. The UNIFAC model was found to be very useful for semi-quantitative analysis of such liquid extraction systems.