Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium for 2-Methylfuran (Biofuel) plus Alcohols plus Water Systems: Experiments and Thermodynamic Modeling

Purification requirements for 2-methylfuran (MF), a new furan biofuel, have increased the demand for experimental liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data and the identification of the appropriate solvents to improve the production process. Thus, this work measured LLE data for 2-methylfuran (MF) + alcohols (1-butanol/1-pentanol/1-hexanol/1-heptanol) + water systems at 298.15 and 313.15 K. The high MF-1-butanol selectivity demonstrated that water can be used in the MF purification process. The overall rootmeansquare errors (RMSEs) between the experimental data measured and calculated by NRTL (nonrandom two liquids) and COSMO-SAC (conductor-like screening model-segment activity coefficient) models were less than 0.56 and 1.21%, respectively, showing quite good agreement with measured tie-line data. Note that the COSMO-SAC model predicts LLE data without using any experimental data and can provide initial estimates for the MF process design. Finally, the binary interaction parameters obtained for the NRTL model were validated by topological analysis using a graphical user interface (GUI).