The presynthesis problem for homogeneous azeotropic distillation has a unique explicit solution

Abstract The presynthesis problem for homogeneous azeotropic distillation consists of constructing residue curve maps for a variety of entrainers in order to find a collection of feasible sequences for further screening. It is shown that for ternary mixtures, these residue curve maps can be uniquely and explicitly constructed from pure component and azeotropic boiling temperature data.