Liquid–Liquid Equilibrium Measurements for the Extraction of Propan-2-ol from Aqueous Mixtures Using Cyclopentanol at 298.2, 308.2, 318.2, and 328.2 K at 101.3 kPa

Propan-2-ol is an important chemical that has found applications in biofuels and is a constituent of fuel, providing significant environmental benefits and considerations. However, production and use are limited by the presence of water, which is often found in propan-2-ol. A viable method for separating propan-2-ol from its aqueous mixture is liquid–liquid extraction. In this study, the feasibility of extracting propan-2-ol from water using cyclopentanol as a solvent was explored by measuring new liquid–liquid equilibrium data for the water (1) + cyclopentanol (2) + propan-2-ol (3) system at 298.15, 308.15, 318.15, and 328.15 K and 101.3 kPa. NRTL and UNIQUAC activity models were employed to account for nonideality in the system; the parameter estimation was formulated by using homotopy continuation to ensure robust and stable predictions. The results indicate that cyclopentanol is an effective solvent for extracting propan-2-ol from water, and as the temperature increases, both the distribution coefficient and the degree of extraction increase. It was also observed that the estimated activity model parameters adequately describe the phase behavior with little discrepancies between the measured and estimated mole fractions.