Selection of an Optimal Entrainer for Extractive Distillation of Azeotropic Acetone/Methanol System

A study on the selection of an optimal entrainer as the third component among water, aniline, 1,3-diethylbenzene, furfural, and MEK, for the extractive distillation of an azeotropic acetone/methanol system was performed using both the entrainer effect vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) and the relative volatility. In the case of water as the entrainer, a VLE curve without azeotropic point in the range of water composition from 0.3 up to 0.7 mole fraction could be obtained by both the experiment and the calculation using modified-UNIFAC model. For aniline and 1,3-diethylbenzene, however, VLE curve without azeotropic point could be obtained only at compositions above 0.7 mole fraction, which exhibited that they could be hardly utilized as the entrainer. Moreover, both furfural and MEK were verified to be improper entrainer since they formed an azeotropic phase. Relative volatility of water showed greater than 1.0 and increased with compositions, while those of the others decreased non-linearly, exhibiting that only water could be utilized as the proper entrainer for the extractive distillation of azeotropic acetone/methanol system.