Liquid-liquid phase equilibrium measurements and modeling for systems involving {soybean oil plus ethyl esters plus (ethanol plus water)}

This work reports a new set of experimental data for the liquid-liquid equilibrium for {soybean oil + soybean oil ethyl esters + (ethanol + water)} systems at atmospheric pressure and at T = (298.15, 313.15 and 323.15) K, while pseudobinary solubility data were obtained for the system {soybean oil + (ethanol + water)} at temperatures from 278.15 to 348.15 K. The liquid-phase compositions were measured by gravimetry, refractive index and Karl Fischer methods. Solubility curves (binodal) were obtained for each temperature by the cloud-point method. The NRTL activity coefficient model was used to correlate experimental tie-line data. Predicted values were close to experimental ones indicating a good correlation for the thermodynamic model used. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.