FATTY ACIDS SYSTEMS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE: CAPRYLIC + MYRISTIC ACIDS AND LAURIC + MYRISTIC ACIDS
Advancing the chemical engineering fundamentals
Thermodynamics (T2-1P)
Keywords: Solid-liquid equilibrium, high-pressure, phase diagrams, fatty acids, modelling.
The fatty acids are the major components of oils and fats. They have critical implications in the understanding of the biological behavior of various lipid systems and lately have been used in the production of coverings, plastics, and cleaning products, phase change materials for energy storage and biodiesel. The knowledge about the properties of fatty acid mixtures can bring innovations in chemistry, food and pharmaceutical industries due to their influence on the characteristics of consumer products such as cosmetics and confectionary fats. Not the least the difficulties in the purification of fatty acids from their natural mixtures, due to thermal decomposition, can be overcome through the adequate knowledge of their phase equilibrium.
The solid liquid phase diagrams of two binary mixtures of saturated fatty acids, formed by caprylic acid (C8:0) + myristic acid (C14:0) and lauric acid (C12:0) + myristic acid (C14:0), were measured using high-pressure microscopy in the range of 0.1 to 90 MPa. It is shown that unlike other long chain alkyl compounds such as alkanes the phase diagrams are only slightly affected by the pressure even in very large pressure ranges such as studied.
The modeling of the measured phase diagrams was attempted using an approach previously developed by the authors for n-alkane mixtures with success. It is here shown that this model can provide an accurate description of the high-pressure solid-liquid equilibrium of fatty acid mixtures.
Presented Monday 17, 13:30 to 15:00, in session Thermodynamics (T2-1P).
