Liquid-liquid equilibria for mixtures containing water, methanol, fatty acid methyl esters, and glycerol

The liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data, including tie-lines and phase boundaries, were measured for the ternary systems of water + methanol + methyl oleate, water + methanol + methyl linoleate, glycerol + methanol + methyl oleate, and glycerol + methanol + methyl linoleate at temperatures from 298.2 K to 318.2 K under atmospheric pressure. All the LLE data follow the Othmer-Tobias equation. Each ternary system behaves type-I LLE. The areas of two-liquid coexistence region decrease with increasing temperature. The experimental data were applied to test the validity of the UNIFAC model and its modified versions, including UNIFAC-LLE and UNIFAC-Dortmund. The LLE data were also correlated with the NRTL and the UNIQUAC models. The UNIQUAC model yielded better results. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.