Solubility of Anthracene in Sub- and Supercritical Propane

Abstract

The equilibrium solubility of anthracene (as a model of coke precursor) in sub- and supercritical propane has been measured using a static viewcell at temperatures from (298 to 405) K and pressures from (4.7 to 11.3) MPa. The values of the mole fraction of anthracene in propane were from 1.4·10 −4 to 6.6·10 −3 over the experimental conditions studied. These values are two orders of magnitude higher than those reported in the literature for anthracene in CO 2 and are indicative of the excellent solvent properties of propane for the extraction of polyaromatics, compared to supercritical CO 2 . The experimental solubility data have been correlated by the Peng−Robinson equation of state using different mixing rules for the calculation of parameters a and b . The mathematical model proposed provides a good agreement between the experimental and the calculated solubility, with a standard deviation of 6·10 −4 of the model predictions.