Ternary phase equilibria for the sodium chloride–sodium sulfate–water system at 200 and 250 bar up to 400°C

Phase equilibria in the NaCl–Na2SO4–H2O system were investigated at 200 and 250 bar for total salt concentrations ranging from 5 to 20 wt.% total salt over temperatures ranging from 320 to 400°C. In addition to providing data for this ternary system, the experiments also added information on the phase behavior of the two binary systems: NaCl–H2O and Na2SO4–H2O. For salt mixture compositions which were rich in sodium sulfate, a solid phase was observed to nucleate from the homogeneous liquid phase. Salt mixture compositions which had a high fraction of sodium chloride exhibited a vapor separation from a homogeneous liquid phase. By fitting curves to the solid–liquid and vapor–liquid separation temperatures, the temperature and composition of a constrained invariant point where liquid, solid salt and vapor are in equilibrium were estimated. These estimates were performed at discrete compositions of 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% total salt at pressures of 200 and 250 bar. The temperature and composition of the invariant point increased with increasing pressure following a simple thermodynamic model for boiling point elevation in a nearly ideal solution.