Measurement and computation of phase equilibrium at infinite dilution

Muzenda, Edison (2000). Measurement and computation of phase equilibrium at infinite dilution. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

In this study, a presentation of vapour-liquid equilibrium measurement and computation is made. The problem was to find infinite dilution activity coefficients (∕c0) of volatile organic compounds in water and silicone oils. These were then compared to find a thermodynamically better absorbent for the effective removal of volatile organic compounds from contaminated air streams. Experimentally, the infinite dilution activity coefficients were obtained using chromatographic methods namely Static headspace and the dynamic Gas Liquid Chromatography (GLC) techniques. When the static determined activity coefficients were compared with the GLC results, a good agreement was observed and these compare very well to those in literature, hence suitable, reliable and accurate techniques were used. The internal agreements of the static and GLC experiments were found to be ±3% and ±1% respectively. Using the \(\gamma^\infty\) as a measure of solubility, silicone oil was found to be a better absorbent, for example in the case of heptane the following mole fraction based activity coefficients were obtained 0.385 and 607 000 in silicone oil and water respectively. To confirm experimental work, original, modified and effective UNIFAC methods were used to estimate \(\gamma^\infty\). Compared to experimentally obtained results, reasonable predictions were obtained in water and they were found to be wrong in oil leading to the conclusion that the UNIFAC procedure is not suitable for studying solvent-polymer solution thermodynamics.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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