Dr. Cabezas-Cornejo, René

Ionic liquids have attracted widespread attention due to their low melting points, low vapor pressure, and non-flammability. However, their application at industrial scale is uncommon due to high costs and low recovering efficiency of the ionic liquids within the process. To reduce the costs and environmental effects of ionic liquids, this study proposes to use industrial microwave irradiation to recover eight different ionic liquids from water. The heating kinetics and identification between dielectric and convective heat properties were studied. Imidazolium-based ionic liquids showed the best results, reaching higher temperatures in shorter periods of time. Ionic liquid (bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) trihexyl(tetradecyl) phosphonium imide ([P6,6,6,14][Tf2N]) reached a temperature of 398 K in 360 s). On the other hand, the ionic liquid (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate ([bmim][CH3OSO3]) reached a temperature of 417 K in 150 s). the ionic liquid Microwave heating experiments (water/ionic liquids) demonstrated a 90% recovery in ∼200 s for 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([omim][Cl]). Finally, the time used to heat-up ionic liquids with microwave irradiation was 15 times shorter than the time employed with vacuum-assisted distillation. Therefore, microwave-assisted heating has shown to be an excellent form to heat ionic liquids to decrease the cost of the extraction process and improve their reusability.

The separation of Levulinic (LA) acid and Formic acid (FA) from aqueous streams represents an important and challenging separation in biorefineries, where ionic liquids (ILs) provide a sustainable environment for liquid-liquid extractions of these acids. In this work, a COSMO-RS screening of bis (trifluoromethylsulfonil)imide [Tf2N]− based IL was first conducted and then followed by experimental validation to search for the most suitable cation for this separation. After the screening, ternary liquid-liquid equilibrium experiments at 298.15K and the subsequent data correlation using the Non-Random Two Liquid model (NRTL) were performed for future industrial implementation. Results indicated that the phosphonium cations, especially the trihexylthetradecyl phosphonium cation [P66614]+, produced the highest selectivity rates among all the experimentally measured ILs.