Phase Behavior of Nitrate Based Ionic Liquids with Thiophene and Alkanes

In this study, the extraction of thiophene from alkane compounds (hexane, heptane, and octane) was investigated by using 1-butyl 3- methylimidazolium nitrate ([Bmim][NO3]) and 1-methyl 3-octylimidazolium nitrate ([Omim][NO3]). Liquid liquid equilibrium (LLE) data for ternary systems of ionic liquid + thiophene + alkane were reported at atmospheric pressure and 298.15 K. The calculated selectivity and solute distribution coefficient values from the experimental data demonstrate that the selectivities increase with increasing alkane chain length while the solute distribution coefficients decrease. Moreover, the selectivity values for the systems containing [Bmin] [NO3] are higher than those containing [Omim][NO3]. This implies that [Bmim] [NO3] is a more suitable solvent than [Omim] [NO3] for desulfurization of alkane. The nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) and universal quasi-chemical (UNIQUAC) models were used to correlate the experimental data. The results show both models can correlate the experimental data with good accuracies.