Enthalpy of Solution and Solubility of Carbon Dioxide in Acetone: Experimental Measurements and Modeling

Carbon dioxide and acetone are attractive mixtures for a variety of industrial applications including absorption/desorption processes. To design such processes, experimental thermodynamic data such as vapor–liquid equilibria, transport properties, and energetic properties are required. These data are essential to develop thermodynamic models aimed at sizing operation units, estimating process parameters, and simulating process plants. For the (CO2 + acetone) system, numerous vapor–liquid equilibrium and density data have already been measured over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. However, very few energetic properties are available for that system, and only some excess enthalpy data have been reported so far. To the best of our knowledge, experimental enthalpies of solution of gaseous CO2 and specific heat capacities have never been measured while they are key properties to design absorption/desorption processes and heat exchangers, respectively. In this work, the enthalpy of solution of CO2 in acetone was determined using a flow calorimetric technique. This technique makes it possible to determine simultaneously the enthalpies of the solution and the CO2 solubility limits. A thermodynamic model was used to represent the phase equilibrium and enthalpy of solution. The model parameters were adjusted to fit literature vapor–liquid equilibria data and our enthalpies of solution.