Automatic screening of entrainers for homogeneous azeotropic distillation

Extended rules and an automatic procedure for the determination of the structure of simple distillation residue curve maps for ternary mixtures are described. The procedure requires only a knowledge of boiling temperatures and approximate compositions of any azeotropes in the mixture. The method is applied to screen numerous entrainers for the separation of ethanol/water and butanol/butyl acetate mixtures