A Knowledge Base for The Recovery of Natural Phenols with Different Solvents

The current study denotes the prediction of activity coefficients of fifteen natural phenols (tyrosol, hydroxytyrosol, oleuropein, caffeic, cinnamic, p-coumaric, ferulic, gallic, p-hydroxybenzoic, p-hydroxyphenyl acetic, protocatechuic, rosmarinic, sinapic, syringic, and vanillic acid) in seven solvents (water, ethanol, methanol, acetone, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and diethyl ether), and three extraction temperatures (298.15, 313.15, and 333.15 K), using the universal functional-group activity coefficient model. Solvents were classified for their ability to dissolve phenols and were compared with experimental data of the literature in order to observe if the solvent extraction of phenols in practice matches with the authors theoretical approach. Results indicated the superiority of alcohols and acetone for the recovery of phenols in line with experimental data of previous studies. Furthermore, activity coefficients values were found to increase with the increase of temperature. This study provided a knowledge base for the selection of the most appropriate solvents for a given phenolic compound.