Toluene solubility in water and organic partitioning from gasoline and diesel fuel into water at elevated temperatures and pressures

A simple and reliable system for determining the solubility and partitioning behavior of liquid fuel components in liquid water up to 250 C has been developed. The system shows good agreement with literature values at ambient temperature for the solubility of toluene and for fuel/water partitioning coefficients (Kfw). Toluene solubility increased ∼23-fold by raising the temperature from ambient to 200 C but was not affected at ambient temperature by changing the pressure from 1 to 50 bar. The increases in partitioning of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and naphthalene from gasoline into liquid water with increasing temperature ranged from 10-fold for benzene to 60-fold for naphthalene when the temperature was raised from ambient to 200 C. Similarly, the increases in partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from diesel fuel into liquid water ranged from ∼130-fold for naphthalene to 470-fold for methylnaphthalene when the temperature was raised from ambient to 250 C. The effect of temperature on the partitioning of naphthalene into water from gasoline and from diesel fuel was similar, indicating that the fuel composition had little effect on the fuel/water partitioning behavior