Evaluation of the 2-Methoxyethanol as Entrainer in Ethanol–Water and 1-Propanol–Water Mixtures

Abstract

In this paper, 2-methoxyethanol (commercially known as methyl cellosolve) is proposed as a potential entrainer for extractive distillation processes involving water–alcohol mixtures. The two alcohols studied in this work are ethanol and 1-propanol. Thereby, isobaric vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) data at atmospheric pressure have been measured for the ternary systems ethanol + water + 2-methoxyethanol and 1-propanol + water + 2-methoxyethanol. Moreover, data of the binary systems formed by the 2-methoxyethanol and each of the other chemicals used (ethanol, water, 1-propanol) have been obtained. The well-known local composition models Wilson, UNIQUAC, and NRTL have been used to correlate binary VLE data. The model parameters obtained after correlation have been employed later to estimate the ternary VLE data and to discuss the suitability to employ 2-methoxyethanol as entrainer. According to the obtained results, 2-methoxyethanol is able to break the azeotrope formed in either of the two studied systems.