Effect of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate on the phase equilibria for systems containing 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, water, organic solvent in the absence and presence of sodium chloride

HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural) is a well-known promising product from hexose dehydration used for production of biofuels and chemicals. Liquid-liquid extraction is an essential process in HMF production to recover HMF from reaction medium. One of the important parameters needed in the extraction process design is liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data. Organic solvent (methyl isobutyl ketone or 2-pentanol) was applied as extraction solvent to induce phase separation and extract HMF from the aqueous solution in the presence of the ionic liquid [EMIM][BF₄] (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) and NaCl (sodium chloride). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of [EMIM][BF₄] on the phase equilibria of methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) or 2-pentanol, HMF, water systems in the absence and presence of NaCl at 313.15 K and atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa). The separation factor and the distribution coefficient of HMF were obtained for interpreting liquid-liquid extraction performance. The results indicated that the presence of [EMIM][BF₄] caused negative effect on the LLE of organic solvent-HMF-water systems. The slope of tie-lines became more negative with increasing [EMIM][BF₄] concentration, indicating lower HMF distribution coefficients and separation factors. However, the presence of NaCl in the HMF aqueous ionic liquid solution can enhance both the separation factor and the distribution coefficient making the HMF extraction more favourable with the HMF distribution coefficient values higher than 1 over the whole range of initial HMF concentrations. According to the results in the present study, MIBK was found superior as an extraction solvent for HMF in the presence of [EMIM][BF₄] and NaCl exhibited from the better extraction performance with the separation factors 2.0 times higher than those of 2-pentanol. Furthermore, the NRTL activity coefficient model satisfactorily correlated all the experimental phase equilibrium data provided in this study. The RMSD (root mean square deviations) of the NRTL model were 0.97% and 0.63% for the investigated LLE systems with MIBK and 2-pentanol as solvent in the absence of NaCl, respectively. Whereas, the RMSD of the LLE systems containing NaCl were 0.28% for MIBK-HMF-water-[EMIM][BF₄]-NaCl and 0.90% for 2-pentanol-HMF-water-[EMIM][BF₄]-NaCl.