Simple and Fractional Distillation

Authors: FRANCISCO, Zarah Clarisse, HASUI, Kyomi Mae, HU, Darlene Abigail, INDANAN, Alexandre Nikolai, LACUNA, Neil Patrick Abstract In todays advanced scientific world, we have developed such techniques that would be extremely useful to us in various cases. The discovery of the distillation technique is among those which men nowadays have great use of. Distillation is used to separate liquids according to the differences in their volatility and boiling points while involving two processes, evaporation and condensation. Volatility refers to the ability of the substance to evaporate easily. The experiment has two parts namely: simple and fractional distillation. Simple distillation is a setup where the components of a solution are extracted according to the volatility of the substances through the presence of heat. The more volatile substance is extracted first from the setup. Evaporation takes place, changing the liquid into gas. The vapour rises and passes through the condenser where it will be changed back into its liquid form. It is collected by the distilling flask at the other end of the setup. The liquid collected is called the distillate while the liquid that does not evaporate and pass through the condenser is called the residue. Fractional distillation, on the other hand, performs a series of evaporation and condensation processes to ensure the purity of the distillate. It is more efficient and is used to separate more complex mixtures of liquids. I. Introduction Distillation is a process of purifying compounds through the help of evaporation and condensation on the basis of the volatility of the compounds components. Since the experiment is divided into two parts, the group was assigned to perform fractional distillation. The objectives of the experiment are: (1) to separate the components of the alcoholic beverage specifically, vodka; (2) to be able to compute for the alcohol content of the beverage and (3) to find out the efficiency of the type of distillation technique used through the computation of the percent error. II. Methodology The group made use of quick-fit apparatus with boiling stones, iron stand, iron clamps, rubber tubing, thermometer and alcohol lamp for the fractional distillation set-up. The addition of boiling stones was done to promote even boiling. The alcoholic beverage used was vodka. The first data or temperature was collected at the first drop of the distillate. For each test tube, a millilitre of the distillate was collected. Then, that data collected were analyzed and plotted into a graph.

III.

Result and Discussion

Table 1: data collected during the fractional distillation process

Test Tube 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Volume ( ml ) 0.00 one drop 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00

Temperature ( Celsius ) 30 72 73 74 74 74 76 76 78 78 78 78 79 80 86 92 94 95 95 95

Flame Test +, purple

Figure 1: Graph of temperature as a function of time.

Computations: Percent Alcohol = = x 100 x 100

= 0. 43333 x 100 = 43 .33 %

Percent Loss = = x 100

x 100

= 73.33 %

Percent Error = = x 100

x 100

= 8.33 %

The graph shows a relationship between temperature and the volume of liquid being collected as distillate. It shows an increase in the temperature at the first drop of distillate collected. Then, the graph showed a gradual increase yet almost constant slope. It confirms the presence of ethanol in the distillate. The graph also shows a significant rise in the temperature when a certain drop was being collected. From this point, the slope again became constant, just like a plateau. This tells us that another type of liquid is being collected as distillate, which is water. The flammability tests conducted on the first and last drops of the distillate collected showed that the first distillate contains alcohol (ethanol). It is so because it produced flame with a purple colour. The last distillate, however, was not flammable and therefore, does not contain alcohol. It is purely water.

V.

Conclusion From the experiment conducted, the group was able to separate the components of vodka into ethanol and water. It is also proven that the more volatile element is alcohol since it is evaporated and condensed first before water. It is proved by the flammability tests which were conducted during the experiment.

In this experiment, the results may not match with what is to be expected. This is because errors that may be present at any time during experiment. Some errors may come from the following: a. b. c. d. e. Misinterpretation of data or directions Instrumental error Human error such as incorrect reading of data being collected Inaccurate measurement of residue Each test tube may not contain an accurate 1 mL