PHASE EQUILIBRIA IN MIXTURES OF HYDROGEN, PROPANE AND FATTY OIL DERIVATIVES AT SUPERCRITICAL CONDITIONS

L.J. ROVETTO; S. PEREDA; S.B. BOTTINI; C.J. PETERS

Versailles, Francia

Simposio; 6th International Symposium on Supercritical Fluids; 2003

The most common industrial process to obtain natural fatty alcohols is by catalytic hydrogenation of fatty acid methyl esters. The addition of supercritical propane to the reactive mixture can bring the organic substrate and hydrogen into a homogeneous phase, increasing reaction rate and selectivity. Knowledge of the phase behavior of these mixtures is a prerequisite in order to select adequate process conditions. In the present work experimental phase equilibrium data on selected binary and ternary mixtures, typical of the supercritical hydrogenation of fatty acid methyl esters, are reported. From earlier work it became apparent that GCA-EoS is capable to model the vapor–liquid (VLE) and liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) related to these systems. Therefore, this equation was chosen to model the fluid phase behavior of the system.