Experimental and calculated liquid–liquid equilibrium data for water + furfural + solvents

Liquid–liquid equilibrium data for water + furfural + ethyl or propyl acetate are reported at 288.2, 303.2 and 318.2 and atmospheric pressure (≈95 kPa). The systems present type II phase diagrams, since water is partially miscible with furfural and esters. In order to obtain more general water + furfural interaction parameters, NRTL and UNIQUAC models were utilized to correlate data determined in this work and data for 13 systems previously reported. The models correlate well the obtained tie lines and NRTL presents better performance than UNIQUAC.

► Furfural solubilizes preferably in the studied solvents than in water. ► Immiscibility region increases in the order: 1-butanol < ethyl acetate < propyl acetate. ► Immiscibility region reduces little with an increase in temperature. ► More general water + furfural interaction parameters were achieved for NRTL and UNIQUAC. ► Detailed uncertainty propagation were performed.