Investigation on the Isobaric Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium for the Binary Systems of Ethyl Benzoate with Xylene Isomers and Ethylbenzene

Isobaric binary vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) data for ethylbenzene + ethyl benzoate, o-xylene + ethyl benzoate, m-xylene + ethyl benzoate, and p-xylene + ethyl benzoate, as well as the quinary VLE data for ethyl benzoate + o-xylene + m-xylene + p-xylene + ethylbenzene, were measured at 101.33 kPa using a modified Rose still. The thermodynamic consistency test was implemented by using the Herington method. Moreover, the VLE data for ethyl benzoate + o-xylene, ethyl benzoate + m-xylene, ethyl benzoate + p-xylene, and ethyl benzoate + ethylbenzene were correlated using the nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) and universal quasichemical activity coefficient (UNIQUAC) models using the nonlinear least-square method. The obtained NRTL and UNIQUAC model parameters of the binary systems were utilized to predict the VLE data for the quinary system. It was shown that all the models showed a relatively small deviation from the experimental results, and the quinary predicted values obtained in this way agreed well with the experimental values, indicating that the experimental data were suitable for designing the extractive distillation process of ethyl benzoate with ethylbenzene and xylene isomers.