Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium of the Ternary System of Water plus Phenol + (Propan-2-yl) Benzene at Several Temperatures

Liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data for the ternary chemical system of {water + phenol + (propan-2-yl) benzene (cumene)} were presented at temperatures of 293.2, 298.2, and 308.2 K and under the ambient pressure of 81.5 kPa. Experiments were performed based on the cloud point titration method and refractive index measurements. Results show that the phenol solubility in cumene is significantly higher than in water especially at higher phenol concentrations. The phenol distribution coefficient and separation factor were obtained within 1.490-3.418 and 82.06-300.24, respectively. The capability of cumene, as a solvent to extract phenol from aqueous solutions, particularly for low level phenol concentrations, was revealed. The consistency of tie line data was sufficiently assessed by the Othmer-Tobias and Bachman equations. Meanwhile, the well-known NRTL and UNIQUAC thermodynamic models were employed to reproduce the experimental data and obtaining the binary interaction parameters. The appropriate low value root-mean-square deviations confirm the good agreement between experimental data and the model correlated values.