Equilibrium in Electrolyte Systems

Abstract

Electrolytes are present in various formulations or processing related to food. Thus, adequate thermodynamic modeling of the complex mixtures found in food systems involving electrolytes and other components is important for a correct representation of the phase behavior. This chapter starts presenting a selection of relevant models used for the thermodynamic modeling of electrolyte mixtures: Gibbs excess energy models and their corrections for systems with electrolytes using the Pitzer-Debye-Hückel approach, together with the perturbed chain statistical associating fluid theory equation of state. Then, examples of the application to solid-liquid and vapor-liquid equilibria involving salts and food key ingredients (amino acids, proteins) are presented and discussed. The chapter finishes with a case study for the phase equilibria of carbohydrates and ionic liquids, which are a new, complex type of electrolytes, used as green solvents in many separation and reaction processes.