Influence of the temperature on the interfacial tension between organic solvent-hydrocarbon systems using Dissipative Particle Dynamics

•DPD in the calculation of the interfacial tension of organic solvent-hydrocarbon systems.•Phase correlation length in binary systems near the critical temperature.•Potential organic solvents to separate cyclohexane-benzene and hexane-benzene. The interfacial tension (IFT) and its dependence on temperature play an important role in organic solvents employed to purify hydrocarbons using extractive distillation. IFT between organic solvents (formamide, ethylene glycol, glycerol, and sulfolane) and hydrocarbons (hexane, cyclohexane, and benzene) was calculated at mesoscopic scales in temperature ranges from 298.15 K to 338.15 K, applying the Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) simulation method. The effect of the external temperature was introduced to calculate the DPD interaction parameters (aij), which is directly related to the Flory-Huggins solubility parameters (χij). The results show that ethylene glycol and sulfolane are potential organic solvents in the purification of systems consisting of benzene-hexane and cyclohexane-benzene by extractive distillation process. [Display omitted]