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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Mass Transfer and Separation Processes

Distillation

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ˌdɪstɪˈleɪʃən/nounCore term

In chemical engineering, distillation means: A way of separating a liquid mixture by boiling it and condensing the vapor, using the fact that the components boil at different temperatures.

In Turkish: damıtma, distilasyon

How it is used

The most common separation method in refineries and chemical plants. It takes place in a distillation column with a reboiler at the bottom and a condenser at the top. Engineers talk about the overhead or distillate, the bottoms, the feed tray and the number of stages.

Example sentences

  1. The solvent is recovered by distillation and sent back to the reactor.

  2. The distillation column can't reach 99.5% purity at this reflux ratio.

Common collocations

  • distillation column
  • fractional distillation
  • vacuum distillation
  • batch distillation
  • reflux ratioIn distillation, the amount of condensed liquid sent back to the top of the column divided by the amount taken off as product (L/D).
  • trayA horizontal plate inside a distillation or absorption column where rising vapor bubbles through the liquid flowing across it, so the two phases exchange components.
  • reboilerA heat exchanger at the bottom of a distillation column that boils part of the bottom liquid to produce the vapor that rises up the column.
  • condenserA heat exchanger that cools a vapor until it turns back into liquid, for example at the top of a distillation column or at the exhaust of a steam turbine.
  • vapor-liquid equilibriumThe state in which a liquid and its vapor exist together with no net change, each with a fixed composition. It is the basis for designing distillation and flash separations.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Mass Transfer and Separation Processes

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