Sunday, April 19, 2009

What are two industrial uses of distillation?

Distillation is the process of separating out chemicals from a mixture by using their different boiling points, specific gravities, and other properties. Industrial usages would normally be centered around taking an impure/mixed sample from a natural source and sorting it into its components to have pure materials. 


One example would be taking mixtures of gasses and separating out individual elements to use for chemical and industrial uses. By distilling regular air, companies can gather pure forms of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gasses. These can then be used to form new mixtures like ammonia from nitrogen, or use gasses for manufacturing purposes, like oxygen being burned in a welding business. 


Distillation is also the method used to separate crude oil into different hydrocarbons. Crude oil is actually made of several different gasses and oils that, once separated out, can be used in a wide range of applications. Diesel fuel for example has a different weight from jet fuel however both come form crude oil. Methane, propane, and other natural gasses are let off from crude oil and can be harvested along with heavier hydrocarbons used to make plastics and medicines. 

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