Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.110, No.23, 11427-11437, 2006
Prediction of thermodynamic derivative properties of pure fluids through the soft-SAFT equation of state
We present in this work the application of the soft-SAFT equation of state (EoS) to the calculation of some main derivative properties, including heat capacities, reduced bulk modulus, Joule-Thomson coefficient, and speed of sound. Calculations have been performed analytically through the derivation of a primary thermodynamic potential function. The application to the n-alkanes, n-alkenes, and 1-alkanols families has been done in a semipredictive manner, with the molecular parameters of the equation obtained from previous fitting to vapor-liquid equilibrium data of the same compounds. The equation is able to capture the typical extrema isothermal derivative properties exhibit with respect to density, providing quantitative agreement with experimental ( or correlation) data in some cases. Results in the vicinity of the critical point are improved by adding a crossover treatment to take into account the long-range fluctuations present in this region. By taking advantage of the molecular nature of the equation, we have been able to separate and quantify the different contributions ( reference fluid, chain, and association) to the total derivative properties. The association plays a predominant role in energetic properties, such as the heat capacities, while there is a competition between association and chain length as the chain length of the compound increases for volumetric properties, such as the isothermal compressibility. These results act in favor of the molecular-based equations, like soft-SAFT, as predictive tools for several applications.