Fractional distillation separates volatile liquid mixtures by exploiting differences in their___________________?
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Answer: B. Relative volatility
Explanation
Fractional distillation separates volatile liquid mixtures based on differences in relative volatility. Components with higher volatility vaporize more readily and concentrate overhead. Repeated vaporization and condensation stages achieve high-purity fractionations. Distillation is the most common thermal separation process in chemical industries. Relative volatility quantifies the boiling point differences and vapor pressure ratios. Energy is supplied via reboilers and removed via condensers to maintain reflux.
Petroleum refineries separate crude oil into useful fuel fractions using distillation. Chemical manufacturing plants purify reaction products through fractional distillation. Designing efficient distillation columns requires accurate vapor-liquid equilibrium data. Selectivity is critical for extractive distillation rather than standard fractional columns. Solubility differences govern liquid-liquid extraction and leaching processes. Density differences are used in gravity decanters and centrifugation, not distillation.
- Subject
- Engineering
- Category
- Chemical Engineering
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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