[No Feet]

For gases of high solubility such as butane it has been shown that the gas normal boiling point can be considered as an extrapolation of the solubility relation; that is, as the saturation temperature is reduced, the solution becomes richer in the gas until as the temperature approaches the gas normal boiling point, the concentration of the saturated solution approaches that of the pure gas. It is hypothesized that this phenomenon occurs only when the solvent and liquefied gas are completely miscible at a temperature below the gas normal boiling point as is the case for butane and hexane.

Am I to understand this to mean butane will evaporate/boil off in a solution of butane and ethanol by simply rising to ambient/room temperature? Is butane completely miscible in ethanol at below gas normal boiling temperature?

[Arkcon]

I'm only guessing about the context, because I haven't time to search out the entire paper.  But are you sure this pertains to an ethanol solution?  It seems like this paper is discussing the out gassing of volatile hydrocarbons from crude petroleum.  I'm guessing that based on your quote never mentioning ethanol, but mentioning hexane instead.

[Enthalpy]

Is butane completely miscible in ethanol at below gas normal boiling temperature?

My intuition shouts "no". Hydrocarbons attract another weakly and need a slightly longer molecule than n-butane to be liquid under standard conditions. Shorter ethanol is liquid thanks to the strong hydrogen bonds, but these won't act on butane. So I expect the butane-ethanol interaction to be clearly too weak to keep them liquid together.

Am I to understand this to mean butane will evaporate/boil off in a solution of butane and ethanol by simply rising to ambient/room temperature?

Butane will dissolve in some (I suppose tiny) amount in ethanol, and heat reduce this solubility further, so you separate them by distillation, yes.

[No Feet]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate the response.
 

I'm only guessing about the context, because I haven't time to search out the entire paper.  But are you sure this pertains to an ethanol solution?  It seems like this paper is discussing the out gassing of volatile hydrocarbons from crude petroleum.  I'm guessing that based on your quote never mentioning ethanol, but mentioning hexane instead.

Right, I should've been a bit more clear on this. I'm asking specifically about ethanol just for my applications, though it is partially covered in the research article. The quote was mostly intended to be a point of reference as to the idea behind the aforementioned phenomenon.

My intuition shouts "no". Hydrocarbons attract another weakly and need a slightly longer molecule than n-butane to be liquid under standard conditions. Shorter ethanol is liquid thanks to the strong hydrogen bonds, but these won't act on butane. So I expect the butane-ethanol interaction to be clearly too weak to keep them liquid together.

Butane will dissolve in some (I suppose tiny) amount in ethanol, and heat reduce this solubility further, so you separate them by distillation, yes.

Hahah oops, yea distillation is the word I should've been looking for there ... Thanks again.