Separation of azeotropic mixtures of Formic acid-water by using Lithium bromide as a salt by extractive distillation

Chemical Engineering

Formic acid is a very useful solvent for many industries and it requires in pure form for specific applications. It makes an azeotrope with water at 107.5°C having composition of 77.5% of formic acid by weight. It is seen that conventional methods used are not much effective or large energy consuming. Another alternative is by adding salt which is helpful by altering the relative volatility of the mixture and separation gets easier. In this paper the effect of addition of Lithium Bromide salt in Formic acid -water binary azeotropic mixture using extractive distillation is discussed. As Lithium bromide is a nonvolatile salt, it will not appear in the distillate and moreover Lithium bromide is hygroscopic in nature so it gives higher boiling point elevation with water which is main cause of its use in this application. Addition of salt eliminates formation azeotrope

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