[Chemical Knowledge]：What is Distillation?

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Distillation is a technical method for the separation of substances, which is based on the different boiling points of substances at different temperatures to achieve the separation of mixtures. Distillation is a very important chemical process, which is widely used in chemical industry, drug production, food processing and other fields. The principle of

distillation
the principle of
distillation can be summarized as heating the mixture to the boiling point, vaporizing one or more components, and then cooling the vapor before collection. During the distillation, the mixture is heated to the boiling point, and the corresponding components begin to vaporize and then enter the vapor phase. At this time, the steam needs to be cooled through the cooling pipe to condense into liquid. This process is called "condensation". The liquid is separated from its organic components. As long as the difference in boiling point, can be separated from different components.

During distillation, when the mixture is warmed to a certain temperature, one or more of the components begin to evaporate, forming a vapor. At this time, the vapor is condensed into a liquid by the refrigeration device, thereby separating the desired substance.

distillation classification

according to the different ways of separation, distillation can be divided into the following:

Atmospheric distillation: also known as regular distillation, is a distillation process carried out at atmospheric pressure, suitable for the separation of substances with lower boiling points.

vacuum distillation: suitable for the separation of substances with high boiling point, because the pressure is small in the vacuum state, it is easy to vaporize them. The process is a distillation carried out at low pressure. When it is used to separate heat-sensitive, high-boiling organic matter, it can ensure that it does not decompose at the required temperature.

steam distillation: refers to the mixture containing only a small amount of volatile components of the material and steam heated together, in the steam will be volatile substances. This method is suitable for the extraction of essential oils.

extraction-distillation: often the extract as one of the distillation fractions. In the extraction-distillation method, water vapor is passed through a mixture placed in an evaporating dish to volatilize volatile substances from it.

Distillation Application

Because distillation can be used for material separation, it is widely used in many industrial, production and experimental fields, such as:

oil refining industry: components in petroleum are separated by distillation, and various types of oil are obtained according to different components.

food processing: the production of alcohol, chewing gum, spices, fatty acids, etc. uses distillation technology.

drug production: Both the extraction and separation of drugs require the use of distillation techniques.

chemistry experiments: in the laboratory, distillation is often used to prepare pure chemicals;