Vapor-liquid equilibria -- methylcyclohexane-n-heptane-solvent

The work reported in this dissertation covers one part of a general project--the development of methods for the commercial separation of pure paraffin and naphthene hydrocarbons from petroleum. Pure methane, ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, pentane, and isopentane are now being produced commercially from petroleum. Higher molecular weight paraffins and naphthenes, with the exception of the lower boiling isomeric hexanes, cannot be separated in a pure condition by distillation alone, as is done with the lighter paraffins. Higher hydrocarbons have been isolated on a laboratory scale only by combinations of methods and successive treatments which are not economically suited to commercial practice. The methods which have been used are: distillation at atmospheric and reduced pressure, chemical treatments (nitration, fuming sulfuric and chlorosulfonic acids), azeotropic distillation, fractional crystallization from solvents and/or equilibrium melting, adsorption on silica gel, and solvent extraction