Solvent-induced crystallization is a novel method for separating an inorganic solute from a concentrated aqueous solution which can provide an attractive low-energy alternative to conventional crystallization methods. Precipitation is initiated when an aqueous phase is extracted into the organic phase or the solvent dissolves in the aqueous phase. The resultant mother liquor, containing the solvent, water, and, residual solute, is then regenerated by temperature adjustment into two phase, a water phase for recycle, and a solvent phase. The latter is further dried by re-equilibrating with a saturated aqueous phase thereby completing the regeneration cycle. In addition, some solutes separate by virtue of their differing solubilities into immiscible phases which can be exploited to drive certain metathesis chemistries when one of the products is removed by extraction via the crystallization step. This work proposes to exploit these techniques by obtaining new experimental data for a variety of representative salt/solvent/water systems and to develop a molecular- thermodynamic model to correlate the data both new and previously published. The results of this work will provide the framework for a family of economically attractive, industrial-scale separation processes.
