Modeling and Simulation of Solid-Liquid Equilibrium by Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory

Abstract

Solubility of polyethylene in mixed xylene was determined experimentally at atmospheric pressure by an indigenously developed laser based technique. In this work, PC-SAFT equation of state was used to model solid-liquid equilibrium (SLE). With the experimental SLE data available in literature for low molecular weight n-alkanes and aromatic compounds both at atmospheric and elevated pressure, the suitability of the developed SLE model based on PC-SAFT equation of state was tested. Subsequently a sensitivity study was performed to understand the effects of different parameters that affect the solubility of polyethylene. The validated model was then used to correlate the experimentally determined solubility data for polyethylene system.