Separation of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol - isopropanol azeotropic mixture by extractive distillation

On a laboratory scale, a complete technological extractive distillation cycle of an industrial azeotropic mixture of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) - isopropanol (IPA) of equimolar composition using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a separation agent (SA) was implemented. All technological stages (extractive distillation, target component separation and SA regeneration) were carried out in one apparatus - a batch distillation column. It was shown that this approach makes it possible to separate the TFE - IPA mixture into individual components, as well as to regenerate NMP. The proposed method is an alternative to traditional chemical methods and allows to eliminate the use of aggressive auxiliary reagents and the formation of by-products, to reduce the number of stages and apparatuses from 5 to 1.