Distillation is one of the most important processes for separating the components of a solution. The solution is heated to form a vapor of the more volatile components
A typical laboratory distillation setup.
Distillation has been used widely to separate volatile components from nonvolatile compounds. The underlying mechanism of distillation is the differences in volatility between individual components. With sufficient heat applied, a gas phase is formed from the liquid solution. The liquid product is subsequently condensed from the gas phase by removal of the heat. Therefore, heat is used as the sepa…
Distillation has long been used as the separation process in the chemical and petroleum industries because of its reliability, simplicity, and low-capital cost. It is employed to separate benzene from toluene, methanol or ethanol from water, acetone from acetic acid, and many multicomponent mixtures. Fractionation of crude oil and the production of deuterium also rely on distillation. Today, with …
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