Vapour pressures were measured using a quasi-static ebulliometer for the pseudo-binary mixtures of (water + ethanol), (water + methanol), and (methanol + ethanol) containing an alkanolammonium-based ionic liquid (IL), namely, mono-ethanolammonium formate ([HMEA][HCOO]) and di-ethanolammonium formate ([HDEA][HCOO]), respectively, with fixed IL mass fraction of 0.30 and over the temperature ranges of (292.12 to 371.13) K. The vapour pressures of the IL-containing ternary systems were favourably correlated using the NRTL model with an overall average absolute relative deviation (AARD) of 0.0082. Further, the salt effects of [HMEA][HCOO] and [HDEA][HCOO] on isobaric vapour liquid equilibria (VLE) of azeotrope and close boiling mixture, especially for the mixtures of (water + ethanol) and (methanol + ethanol), were investigated and compared with other ILs in terms of the x'-y phase diagrams predicted with the binary NRTL parameters. It is demonstrated that the relative volatilities of ethanol to water and ethanol to methanol are enhanced, and [HMEA][HCOO] might be used as a promising entrainer for the efficient separation of ethanol aqueous solution by special rectification. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.