Ternary phase equilibria for the sodium chloride-sodium sulfate-water system at 200 and 250 bar up to 400°C

Phase equilibria in the NaCl-Na2SO4-H2O system were investigated at 200 and 250 bar for total salt concentrations ranging from 5 to 20 wt.% total salt over temperatures ranging from 320 to 400 degrees C. In addition to providing data for this ternary system, the experiments also added information on the phase behavior of the two binary systems: NaCl-H2O and Na2SO4-H2O. For salt mixture compositions which were rich in sodium sulfate, a solid phase was observed to nucleate from the homogeneous liquid phase. Salt mixture compositions which had a high fraction of sodium chloride exhibited a vapor separation from a homogeneous liquid phase. By fitting curves to the solid-liquid and vapor-liquid separation temperatures, the temperature and composition of a constrained invariant point where liquid, solid salt and vapor are in equilibrium were estimated. These estimates were performed at discrete compositions of 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% total salt at pressures of 200 and 250 bar. The temperature and composition of the invariant point increased with increasing pressure following a simple thermodynamic model for boiling point elevation in a nearly ideal solution. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.