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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Mass Transfer and Separation Processes

Extraction

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ɪkˈstrækʃən/nounCommon term

In chemical engineering, extraction means: A separation method that uses a solvent to pull a component out of a liquid or solid mixture, based on how much better it dissolves in the solvent.

In Turkish: ekstraksiyon, özütleme

How it is used

Used in pharmaceuticals, aromatics recovery, metal refining and food processing. In liquid-liquid extraction the two phases are the raffinate and the extract. Engineers choose the solvent, the solvent-to-feed ratio and the number of stages.

Example sentences

  1. The product is recovered from the aqueous layer by extraction with ethyl acetate.

  2. Three extraction stages give more than 98% recovery.

Common collocations

  • liquid-liquid extraction
  • solvent extraction
  • extraction column
  • extraction stage
  • absorptionA separation method in which one or more components of a gas dissolve into a liquid, for example CO2 being removed from gas by an amine solution.
  • mass transferThe movement of a component from one place or phase to another because of a difference in concentration, for example from a gas into a liquid or from a liquid into a solid.
  • distillationA way of separating a liquid mixture by boiling it and condensing the vapor, using the fact that the components boil at different temperatures.
  • crystallizationForming solid crystals from a solution, usually by cooling it or evaporating the solvent, so that a pure solid product can be separated.

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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