For alcoholic beverages such as beer,
downstream processing for
either dealcoholization or off-flavor removal requires both quantitative
data and suitable predictive methods. Along with experimental investigations,
we use a method initially developed for studying the solubility of
gases in two or more miscible liquid solvents to monitor the effect
of ethanol on air–water partition coefficients of three major
flavors found in beer, namely, isoamyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, and
isoamyl acetate. In the ethanol concentration range between 0 and
0.1 mole fraction, a slight, rather linear increase in the Henry’s
solubility coefficient was observed. This overall behavior can be
captured well using Henry coefficients for aqueous binary and ternary
systems together with the Wohl expansion for excess Gibbs free energy
coupled with the one-parameter Margules equation. Based on the developed
model, the Wohl’s expansion parameter for ethanol–water
is introduced as the solvent–solvent interaction parameter.
The van ’t Hoff parameters for temperature dependence of Henry
coefficients for binary water–flavor solutions are determined
in the range of 30 to 60 °C.