Modeling Dipolar Molecules with PCP-SAFT: A Vector Group-Contribution Method

Predicting thermodynamic equilibrium properties is essential to develop chemical and energy conversion processes in the absence of experimental data. For the modeling of thermodynamic properties, statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT)-based equations of state, such as perturbed-chain polar (PCP)-SAFT, have been proven powerful and found broad application. The PCP-SAFT parameters can be predicted by group-contribution (GC) methods. However, their application to the dipole term is substantially limited: current GC methods neglect the dipole term or only allow for a single dipolar group per substance to avoid handling the molecular dipole moment's symmetry effects. Still, substances with multiple dipolar groups are highly relevant, and their description substantially improves by including the dipole term in SAFT models. To overcome these limitations, this work proposes a vector-addition-based (Vector-)GC method for the dipole term of PCP-SAFT that accounts for molecular symmetry. The Vector-GC employs information on the substance's molecular 3D structure to predict the molecular dipole moment through a vector addition of bond contributions. Combining the proposed sum rule for dipole moments with established sum rules for the remaining parameters yields a consistent GC method for PCP-SAFT for dipolar substances. The prediction capabilities of the Vector-GC method are analyzed against experimental data for two substance classes: nonassociating oxygenated and halogenated substances. We demonstrate that the Vector-GC method improves vapor pressure and liquid density predictions compared to neglecting the dipole term. Moreover, we show that the Vector-GC method enables differentiation between cis- and trans-isomers. The Vector-GC method, hence, substantially increases the predictive capabilities and applicability domain of GC methods. All parameters are provided as JSON and CSV files, and the Vector-GC method is available through an open-source python package. Additionally, the developed regression framework for GC methods for PCP-SAFT is openly available. The regression framework can be employed to regress the Vector-GC method to other substance classes and is easily adaptable to other sum rules for PCP-SAFT.