Distillation and you......

[drozhenbane]

Distilling......


Sounds so simple, yet so effective, and yields the best results.
There are many types of distillation:
*Reverse
*Freezing
*Condensation
*Boiling
*Fractional
*Reflux
*Osmotic
*Azeotrope

I will (time permitting) post how each one works, and the math/physics behind each one...........

I have over 11 years in this industry, and hope to spread my knowledge...

 

[Palladium]

That would be cool. 8)
Welcome to the forum.

 

[drozhenbane]

Thank you for the introductory note....

lets start with a standard distill:


You are looking for a concentration that is outside waters standard boiling point....

You can achieve this a number of ways...

I am however going to use a real world example.....

Water and Ethanol, form an azeotrope at 194 proof(Pretty Darn Close)......

This means you cannot boil water/ethanol to distill it any further, because it has formed an azeotrope.

An Azeotrope just means......

A mixture of 2 or more liquids cannot be seperated by distillation.

This isnt confined to just ethanol/water..... HCL, H2SO4, HNO3, all form azeotropes. These all have ways to concentrate them. My main focus is on the concentration of them.

I wish I could elaborate further..... but my infant daughter is awake......... and I will catch up with you as soon as She takes a nap..........

 

[drozhenbane]

Fractional Distillation:

Concept:
This type of distillation is used to seperate 2 liquids with close boiling points. The idea is that if you heat the solution up with controlled temperatures you can effectively "Flash" one product from the other. Pressure affects boiling points as well as concentration of the liquids. The higher the pressure the higher the boiling point, and the same works in reverse under vacuum. Vacuum is really cool because it allows you to work at lower temperatures. You can actually boil water at room temperature if you have a deep enough vacuum! :shock:

Theory:
As the temperature rises the solution pending its concentration will start to flash off, it does not need to boil. It only has to reach its evaporation temperature as the liquid converts to a gas it will rise up until it has lost enough energy to condense back into a liquid. A cooling chamber is usually attached to achieve this, and speed up the process. When the gas condense back into a liquid rapidly a small amount of vacuum is created. Which effectively lowers the boiling point of the solution, and also helps keep the process moving forward.

Application:
/////Will insert crudely drawn picture here///////