Use of selective ionic liquids and ionic liquid/salt mixtures as entrainer in a (vapor plus liquid) system to separate n-heptane from toluene

During the last years, a large number of studies have evaluated the ability of ionic liquids (ILs) to separate aromatic from aliphatic hydrocarbons by liquid extraction. Nevertheless, in order to design a global process, a post-extraction step based on the aromatic recovery from the extract stream and the regeneration of the IL is required. Taking into account the negligible vapor pressure of the ILs, the use of separation units based on the difference of volatility among the components of the extract could be an appropriate way. However, that requires additional (vapor + liquid) equilibrium (VLE) data, which are scarce today. In this work, the isothermal VLE data for {n-heptane + toluene + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate ([EMim][SCN])} and {n-heptane + toluene + 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate ([BMim][SCN])} mixtures were experimentally measured at T = (323.2, 343.2 and 363.2) K over the whole composition range within the rich-IL miscibility region. For that, a static headspace gas chromatograph (HS-GC) was used. In addition, the non-random two liquids (NRTL) thermodynamic model was satisfactory applied to correlate the experimental VLE data. Finally, the effect of thiocyanate-based inorganic salts (AgSCN, Co(SCN)(2) and CuSCN) on the phase behavior of the above mentioned mixtures were also analyzed through the experimental determination of the isothermal VLE of the pseudo-ternary systems {n-heptane + toluene + [EMim][SCN]/salt mixture}. The obtained results show that the use of pure thiocyanate-based ILs as entrainer increases the n-heptane relative volatility from toluene whereas the addition of inorganic salts has not led to an improvement of these results. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.