Regarding the issue of water in the ternary azeotrope zone

It makes sense to look at the data. Diisopropyl ether has a flash point of -22°C and is insoluble in water ； Benzene flash point -11℃ ； I’m not sure if it’s due to considerations of safety, cost, or some other factor. Industrial production takes into account more than just experimental data. Teachers with practical experience can answer this!

What I would like to ask is, when choosing an azeotrope agent, why is it necessary to select one with a low water content at the azeotopic point?

What I would like to ask is, when choosing an azeotrope agent, why is it necessary to select one with a low water content at the azeotopic point?

What I would like to ask is, when choosing an azeotrope agent, why is it necessary to select one with a low water content at the azeotopic point?

Not only the water-carrying capacity of the azeotrope (measured by the water content in the azeotrope) needs to be considered, but also factors such as the separation that occurs after the aqueous azeotrope evaporated at the top of the tower is condensed and cooled. Based on the azeotrope composition data provided by the poster, if diisopropyl ether is used as the azeotrope-forming agent, since the ternary azeotopic point of ethanol-water-diisopropyl ether is 61°C and the binary azeotopic point of water-diisopropyl ether is 62.2°C, these two azeotopic points are very close to each other, meaning that they vaporize together. More importantly, at room temperature, the solubility of diisopropyl ether in water is as high as approximately 1.2 g per 100 g of water; therefore, a significant amount of this azeotrope is lost during the separation of wastewater, which necessitates the use of additional facilities such as wastewater stripping to recover the azeotrope. Therefore, the rationale for using diisopropyl ether as an azeotrope is not as strong as that for using cyclohexane or benzene, as cyclohexane or benzene suffer much lower dissolution losses in the wastewater during decantation.

Indeed, many factors need to be considered when choosing an azeotrope, but what I would like to ask is how to compare the amount of water carried by an azeotrope? The result of the example analysis states that the azeotrope components benzene and cyclohexane exhibit good water removal efficiency in azeotropic distillation, whereas diisopropyl ether has a low water removal capacity. How can we determine the water content of these three azeotropes? It seems to me that diisopropyl ether has a lower water content

Based on the azeotopic compositions of the ethanol-water-diisopropyl ether ternary system and the water-diisopropyl ether binary system, it is diisopropyl ether that exhibits a better water content. However, during the decanting and separation process after the condensation and cooling of the vapor from the tower top containing the aqueous azeotrope, due to the significant loss of diisopropyl ether dissolved in the decanted wastewater, it is generally not used as an azeotrope component. The dissolution loss of benzene is about one-sixth that of diisopropyl ether, while cyclohexane has almost no dissolution loss. Of course, diisopropyl ether has a better water content, so the energy consumption of the azeotropic distillation column may be relatively lower. However, the investment and energy consumption associated with the recovery of the azeotrope in the wastewater stripping tower need to be taken into account; a comprehensive calculation and comparison are required before it can be determined whether there is still an advantage over other methods that use an azeotrope.

Is diisopropyl ether so highly soluble in water?

Is diisopropyl ether so highly soluble in water?

In several property data manuals such as the Lan’s Chemical Handbook, the solubility of diisopropyl ether in water is given as 1.2 g/100 g of water; however, the temperature conditions under which this value applies are not specified in the tables. According to the instructions in the handbook, this refers to normal room temperature.