Binary and ternary LLE data of the system (ethylbenzene + styrene + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate) and binary VLE data of the system (styrene + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate)

The distillation of close boiling mixtures may be improved by adding a proper affinity solvent, and thereby creating an extractive distillation process. An example of a close boiling mixture that may be separated by extractive distillation is the mixture ethylbenzene/styrene. The ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate ([EMIM][SCN]) is a promising solvent to separate ethylbenzene and styrene by extractive distillation. In this study, (vapour + liquid) equilibrium data have been measured for the binary system (styrene + [EMIM][SCN]) over the pressure range of (3 to 20) kPa and binary and ternary (liquid + liquid) equilibrium data of the system (ethylbenzene + styrene + [EMIM][SCN]) at temperatures (313.2, 333.2 and 353.2) K. Due to the low solubility of ethylbenzene in [EMIM][SCN], it was not possible to measure accurately VLE data of the binary system (ethylbenzene + [EMIM][SCN]) and of the ternary system (ethylbenzene + styrene + [EMIM][SCN]) using the ebulliometer. Because previous work showed that the LLE selectivity is a good measure for the selectivity in VLE, we determined the selectivity with LLE. The selectivity of [EMIM][SCN] to styrene in LLE measurements ranges from 2.1 at high styrene raffinate purity to 2.6 at high ethylbenzene raffinate purity. The NRTL model can properly describe the experimental results. The rRMSD in temperature, pressure and mole fraction for the binary VLE data are respectively (0.1, 0.12 and 0.13)%. The rRMSD is only 0.7% in mole fraction for the LLE data.

► LLE data have been measured for the system {ethylbenzene + styrene + [EMIM][SCN]}.
► VLE was determined for the system {styrene + [EMIM][SCN]} at vacuum conditions.
► All experimental data were correlated well with the NRTL model.
► [EMIM][SCN] has a much larger selectivity than the benchmark solvent sulfolane.