Purification of tetrahydrofuran from its aqueous azeotrope by extractive distillation: Validation of model and simulation

Tetrahydrofuran (THF) purification by distillation is difficult due to the existence of its homogeneous, minimum boiling azeotrope with water. Previously conducted extractive distillation runs were used in this work to validate a rigorous model.

The validated model was then used to arrive at a feasible range of operating parameters by performing sensitivity analysis. It is shown through simulations that with the correct operating parameters, use of dimethyl sulfoxide can help obtain almost pure THF.