Distillation is process of separating an organic liquid from water. This liquid may be alcohol, oils, waxes or other fats. Distillation is used to make alcoholic beverages, perfume, essential oils and pomades. You can distill substances using the steam method, fractional method and the water method.
Steam Distillation of Chemicals
To distill by steaming, boil the mixture of water and another organic compound and funnel the water vapors into a condenser. The condenser changes the vapors back to liquid and feeds them to a separator that moves the oils, alcohol or other organic compound into one receptacle and the water into another. Water may need to be added to the distilling flask where you boil the mixture to get higher-boiling compounds to vaporize. The speed of your addition should match the rate at which the drops of water are collected.
Microscale Fractional Distillation
Microscale fractional distillation is employed when simple steam distillation cannot fully separate the two liquids. For this method, set up the distiller in much the same way a simple steam distillation is set up, but add a fractional column that provides an additional place where the condensed liquid can revaporize and recondense. The resulting liquid after the second recondensation should be completely purified. Place one or two boiling stones in the flask to keep the mixture boiling evenly throughout the process, and never boil the flask to dryness. High-boiling peroxides can become over-concentrated in the flask and cause an explosion.
Water Distillation with Plants
Water distillation or essential oil distillation is steam distillation using plants as the organic compound mixed with the water. Plant flowers, seeds, leaves and/or roots are boiled in the water, and as the water vapors push through the plant, they take with them the plant's oils. The vapor is condensed, and the separator separates the plant's oils from the water. The separated oils are then sold as the essential oils, and the leftover water with some oil residue is sold as a hydrosol, such as rose water and lavender water.
Tags: organic compound, steam distillation, boil mixture, essential oils, from water