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Separation Science and Technology, Vol.44, No.11, 2707-2719, 2009
Effects of Ultrasonic Waves on Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium of an Azeotropic Mixture
Azeotropic and extractive distillation techniques used to separate azeotropic mixtures are among the most challenging separation processes in the chemical industry. In this work, an innovative distillation technique which employed ultrasonic waves was proposed to intensify the conventional multi-column azeotropic distillation method into a single-column alternative. The effects of ultrasonic intensity on the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE)-methanol was investigated at 50, 100, 200, and 250 W/A.cm(2) and at a fixed frequency of 40 kHz. Studies were also done to examine the effects of ultrasonic frequency on the VLE data at 25 and 68 kHz frequencies. It was found that ultrasonic waves at 50 W/A.cm(2) intensity and 25 kHz frequency gave the highest relative volatility (alpha) at 2.654 and completely eliminated the MTBE-methanol azeotrope, thereby allowing highly pure MTBE to be recovered in just a single distillation column. The results revealed that ultrasonic waves had the potential to favorably manipulate alpha, and hence, the VLE of an azeotropic mixture.
Keywords:Azeotropic mixture;methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE)-methanol system;relative volatility;ultrasonic waves;vapor-liquid equilibrium