Ionic liquid effects on mass transfer efficiency in extractive distillation of water¿ethanol mixtures

E Quijada-Maldonado, G.W. Meindersma, AB de Haan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

tThe relatively high viscosities of ionic liquids could reduce the mass transfer efficiency of the extractivedistillation process. The rate-based model was adopted to analyze this phenomenon since it predicted theperformance of an extractive distillation pilot plant using ionic liquids as solvent. For the water¿ethanolseparation, three ionic liquids: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumacetate and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide and the organic solvent ethylene glycol wereused for the analysis. Simulations were conducted for sieve trays and Mellapak®250Y. The results indi-cate that relatively high viscosities affect the mass transfer efficiency. However, the improvements inrelative volatilities obtained from the ionic liquids help to overcome this effect. However, with high sol-vent viscosities (>65 mPa s at T = 353.15 K) it was not possible to overcome the reductions. Additionally, athigher distillate rates high relative volatilities yielded negative effects on mass transfer efficiency becauseof a decrease in vapor velocity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)210-219
Number of pages10
JournalComputers & Chemical Engineering
Volume71
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Ionic liquid effects on mass transfer efficiency in extractive distillation of water¿ethanol mixtures'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this