Aspects of the thermogravimetric analysis of liquid mixtures as predictive or interpretation tool for batch distillation

The thermogravimetric analysis when applied to liquid binary mixtures of acetonitrile–water and methanol–water reproduces the whole course of a batch distillation with an appreciable saving of time and materials. The experimental mass and energy balances correlate with good approximation to the vapor–liquid equilibrium compositions without the need of gas-phase measures or thermodynamic models. This technique was here applied for the first time as fast method for distillation design and complementary tool for DSC boiling-point measurements.