Modeling vapor-liquid interfaces with the gradient theory in combination with the CPA equation of state

With the final purpose of describing the important aqueous + hydrocarbon liquid-liquid interfaces, the gradient theory was combined with the Cubic-Plus-Association equation of state (CPA EOS), taking advantage of the correct representation of interfacial tensions provided by the gradient theory and the correct phase equilibrium of water + hydrocarbon systems already obtained from CPA. In this work, preliminary studies involving the vapor-liquid interfacial tensions of some selected associating and non-associating pure components (water, ethanol, n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, n-heptane) are presented and discussed. The good description of equilibrium properties such as vapor pressure and liquid and vapor phase densities is shown in the full range of the vapor-liquid saturation line. For non-associating components, results are compared with those from the Soave-Redlich-Kwong and Peng-Robinson equations of state. A correlation for the influence parameter is presented from which surface tensions can be obtained in a broad temperature range with average errors smaller than 1%. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.