How does vacuum distillation work?
Vacuum distillation is an important process in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. But it is employed in many other sectors, too. For example, in beverage and food production to extract plant essences, or to separate long-chain hydrocarbons in oil refineries.Distillation is commonly used to separate the components of a liquid mixture. As the liquid components have different boiling points, they evaporate under different operating conditions. And may be removed and recovered successively.
The boiling point of the substances to be separated is lower under vacuum.
Vacuum distillation is therefore the process of choice if the compounds to be separated normally have a high boiling point or are explosive. And allows for separation of substances that would decompose at higher temperatures.
