Application of Supercritical Phase Equilibria to the Components of the Transesterification Reaction of rac-2-Pentanol with a Vinyl Ester

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the collection of phase equilibrium and high-pressure solubility data applied to four binary systems, (CO2 + 2-pentanol, CO2 + vinyl butyrate, CO2 + 2-pentyl butyrate and CO2 + butyric acid) at three temperatures of (313.15, 323.15, and 333.15) K and pressures up to 11 MPa. These four organic compounds were selected because they are implicated in the kinetic resolution of rac-2-pentanol, and their phase equilibria play an important role in the separation processes of the reaction compounds. Equilibrium data were obtained using a synthetic method in a high-pressure cell of variable volume. All systems were found to have type I phase behavior. Experimental high-pressure data showed a good correlation with density-based models and by the well-known Peng-Robinson (PR) and Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) EoS coupled with the quadratic mixing rule in a semipredictive approach to describe the phase equilibrium topology of the four binary mixtures.