The following reaction is used to produce methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE): isobutene+MeOH ⇄ MTBE. The reacting mixture contains
-butane, an inert component, in addition to methanol (MeOH), isobutene, and MTBE.
Azeotropes between MeOH and isobutene and MTBE and MeOH are reacted away. The azeotrope,
A, between MeOH and
-butane is shown in the figure with a red dot. This azeotrope is an unstable node and contains 2.21 mole% MeOH.
This Demonstration plots the residue curve passing through a user-specified location in the triangular diagram. The
and
axes of the figure are related to liquid phase compositions by the following relations:
and
,
where
,
, and
are the mole fractions of isobutene, MeOH, and MTBE, respectively.
The position of pure MTBE, shown by a green dot in the diagram, is given by
.
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