Phase equilibria of (water + levulinic acid + dibasic esters) ternary systems

Liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) data of the solubility (binodal) curves and tie-line end compositions were examined for mixtures of {(water (1) + levulinic acid (2) + dimethyl succinate or dimethyl glutarate or dimethyl adipate (3)} at 298.15 K and 101.3 ± 0.7 kPa. The reliability of the experimental tie-line data was confirmed by using the Othmer–Tobias correlation. The LLE data of the ternary systems were predicted by UNIFAC method. The LLE data were correlated fairly well with UNIQUAC and NRTL models, indicating the reliability of the UNIQUAC and NRTL equations for these ternary systems. The best results were achieved with the NRTL equation, using non-randomness parameter (α = 0.3) for the correlation. Distribution coefficients and separation factors were measured to evaluate the extracting capability of the solvents.