High pressure solid–liquid equilibrium of fatty acid ethyl esters binary systems

• The melting temperature of ethyl esters were measured up to 80 MPa.
• The liquidus line of binary systems of ethyl laurate, ethyl myristate and ethyl palmitate were studied up to 80 MPa.
• Liquidus line was modeled using a high pressure predictive approach.

The solid–liquid phase diagrams of three binary mixtures of fatty acids ethyl esters (FAEEs), formed by ethyl laurate, ethyl myristate and ethyl palmitate, were measured using high pressure microscopy in the range of 0.1–80 MPa. In a first step, the melting temperatures of pure FAEEs have been determined showing a linear dependence from the pressure. The binary phase diagrams are only slightly affected by the pressure, even in very large pressure ranges such as those studied in this work. The modeling of the phase diagrams was attempted using a predictive approach previously developed by one of the authors in the case for n-alkane mixtures. The model was able to provide an accurate description of the high pressure solid–liquid equilibrium of FAEE mixtures. Average absolute deviations between experimental and predicted liquidus curve varied from 0.7 to 2.8 K in the entire interval of pressures.