Distillation is a process that separates components of a liquid mixture based on differences in their volatilities in heating and cooling processes. It involves selectively boiling the more volatile components by heating the mixture and then condensing the vapor.
There are several types of distillation including simple distillation, fractional distillation, steam distillation and vacuum distillation. Simple distillation is used to separate components with large differences in volatility, while fractional distillation allows separation of mixtures with components of similar volatility by conducting multiple distillation steps. Distillation finds applications in purification of solvents, separation of essential oils, and production of alcoholic beverages and petroleum products among others. Key aspects of distillation systems include the still, condenser and