ISSN: 2157-7048
Afolabi, Tinuade Jolaade and Alao Adeyinka Idowu
Experimental liquid-liquid equilibria of the ternary system of (water + lactic acid + butyl acetate) were studied at T=(298.15, 303.15 and 308.15) K under atmospheric conditions. Complete phase diagrams were obtained by determining solubility and tie-line data. The ternary system exhibits type-1 behavior of LLE. The reliability of the experimental tie-line data was ascertained by using both Hand and Othmer-Tobias correlations. The UNIFAC group contribution method was used to predict the observed ternary liquid-liquid equilibrium data. Distribution coefficients and separation factors were evaluated to evaluate the extracting capability of the solvent. Separation factors were more than unity and the UNIFAC prediction was satisfactory.