Interaction parameters for multi-component aromatic extraction with sulfolane

Aromatic extraction is an important operation in petrochemical processing. Design of an aromatic extractor requires the knowledge of multi-component liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) data. Such experimental LLE data are usually not available and therefore can be predicted using various activity coefficient models. These models require proper binary interaction parameters, which are not yet available for all aromatic extraction systems. Furthermore, the parameters available for most of the ternary systems are specific to that system only and cannot be used for other ternary or multi-component systems. An attempt has been made to obtain these parameters that are globally applicable. For this purpose, the parameter estimation procedure has been modified to estimate the parameters simultaneously for different systems involving common pairs. UINQUAC and UNIFAC models have been used for parameter estimation. The regressed parameters are shown to be applicable for the ternary as well as for the multi-component systems. It is observed that UNIQUAC parameters provide a better fit for ternary LLE data, whereas, as one moves towards the higher component systems (quaternary and quinary) the UNIFAC parameters, which are a measure of the group contributions, predict the LLE better. Effect of temperature on UNIQUAC binary interaction parameters has been studied and a linear dependence has been observed.