(Liquid + liquid) equilibria of (water + lactic acid + alcohol) ternary systems

(Liquid + liquid) equilibrium (LLE) measurements of the solubility (binodal) curves and tie-line end compositions were carried out for {water (1) + lactic acid (2) + octanol, or nonanol, or decanol (3)} at T = 298.15 K and 101.3 ± 0.7 kPa. The relative mutual solubility of lactic acid is higher in the water layers than in the organic layers. The reliability of the experimental tie-line data was confirmed by using the Othmer–Tobias correlation. The LLE results for the ternary systems were predicted by UNIFAC method. Distribution coefficients and separation factors were evaluated for the immiscibility region.