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We present a theoretical framework and parameterisation of intermolecular potentials for aqueous electrolyte solutions using the statistical associating fluid theory based on the Mie interaction potential (SAFT-VR Mie), coupled with the primitive, non-restricted mean-spherical approximation (MSA) for electrolytes. In common with other SAFT approaches, water is modelled as a spherical molecule with four off-centre association sites to represent the hydrogen-bonding interactions; the repulsive and dispersive interactions between the molecular cores are represented with a potential of the Mie (generalised Lennard-Jones) form. The ionic species are modelled as fully dissociated, and each ion is treated as spherical: Coulombic ion–ion interactions are included at the centre of a Mie core; the ion–water interactions are also modelled with a Mie potential without an explicit treatment of ion–dipole interaction. A Born contribution to the Helmholtz free energy of the system is included to account for the process of charging the ions in the aqueous dielectric medium. The parameterisation of the ion potential models is simplified by representing the ion–ion dispersive interaction energies with a modified version of the London theory for the unlike attractions. By combining the Shannon estimates of the size of the ionic species with the Born cavity size reported by Rashin and Honig, the parameterisation of the model is reduced to the determination of a single ion–solvent attractive interaction parameter. The resulting SAFT-VRE Mie parameter sets allow one to accurately reproduce the densities, vapour pressures, and osmotic coefficients for a broad variety of aqueous electrolyte solutions; the activity coefficients of the ions, which are not used in the parameterisation of the models, are also found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. The models are shown to be reliable beyond the molality range considered during parameter estimation. The inclusion of the Born free-energy contribution, together with appropriate estimates for the size of the ionic cavity, allows for accurate predictions of the Gibbs free energy of solvation of the ionic species considered. The solubility limits are also predicted for a number of salts; in cases where reliable reference data are available the predictions are in good agreement with experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major advance in the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) for potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR) has recently been made with the incorporation of the Mie (generalized Lennard-Jones [LJ]) interaction between the segments comprising the molecules in the fluid (Lafitte et al. J. Chem. Phys. 2013;139:154504). The Mie potential offers greater versatility in allowing one to describe the softness/hardness of the repulsive interactions and the range of the attractions, which govern fine details of the fluid-phase equilibria and thermodynamic derivative properties of the system. In our current work, the SAFT-VR Mie equation of state is employed to develop models for a number of prototypical fluids, including some of direct relevance to the oil and gas industry: methane, carbon dioxide and other light gases, alkanes, alkyl benzenes, and perfluorinated compounds. A complication with the use of more-generic force fields such as the Mie potential is the additional number of parameters that have to be considered to specify the interactions between the model molecules, leading to a degree of degeneracy in the parameter space. A formal methodology to isolate intermolecular-potential models and assess the adequacy of the description of the thermodynamic properties in terms of the complex parameter space is developed. Fluid-phase equilibrium properties (the vapor pressure and saturated-liquid density) are chosen as the target properties in the refinement of the force fields; the predictive capability for other properties such as the enthalpy of vaporization, single-phase density, speed of sound, isobaric heat capacity, and Joule-Thomson coefficient, is appraised. It is found that an overall improvement of the representations of the thermophysical properties of the fluids is obtained using the more-generic Mie form of interaction; in all but the simplest of fluids, one finds that the LJ interaction is not the most appropriate. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 2891-2912, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved formulation of the extension of the statistical associating fluid theory for potentials of variable range to electrolytes (SAFT-VRE) is presented, incorporating a representation for the dielectric constant of the solution that takes into account the temperature, density and composition of the solvent. The proposed approach provides an excellent correlation of the dielectric-constant data available for a number of solvents including water, representative alcohols and carbon dioxide, and it is shown that the methodology can be used to treat mixed-solvent electrolyte solutions. Models for strong electrolytes of the metal-halide family are considered here. The salts are treated as fully dissociated and ion-specific interaction parameters are presented. Vapour pressure, density, and mean ionic activity coefficient data are used to determine the ion–ion and solvent–ion parameters, and mixed-salt electrolyte solutions (brines) are then treated predictively. We find that the resulting intermolecular potential models follow physical trends in terms of energies and ion sizes with a close relationship observed with well-established ionic diameters. A good description is obtained for the densities, mean ionic activity coefficients, and vapour pressures of the electrolyte solutions studied. The theory is also seen to provide excellent predictions of the osmotic coefficient and of the depression of the freezing temperature, and provides a qualitative estimate of the solvation free energy. The vapour pressure of aqueous brines is predicted accurately, as is the density of these solutions, although not at the highest pressures considered. Calculations for the vapour–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria of salts in water+methanol and water+n-butan-1-ol are presented. In addition, it is shown that the salting-out of carbon dioxide in sodium chloride solutions is captured well using a predictive model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]