Distillation

09/29/25

“How can we use boiling to separate two substances mixed together?”

Substances mixed together in a liquid can be difficult to separate. But applying a bit of chemical knowledge can help us. If the two mixtures have significantly different boiling points, then one will vaporize before the other. So what if we were to capture this vapor and condense it into another reservoir to separate the substances? Well, this is the idea behind Distillation. Water treatment systems can apply distillation to separate water from contaminants. If the boiling points between the different substances are less than 100 degrees ˚C apart, then operators must use a special fractional distillation technique.

• Chemistry
• Engineering
• Physics