What is the difference between Fractional and Simple Distillation?

Distillation techniques is a separation technique that is used to purify the liquid mixture. Fractional distillation and simple distillation are types of distillation methods. Fractional distillation is used to separate mixtures containing chemicals, such as crude oil refining. It has two cycles because the separation process has to be repeated to get pure components.

It cannot be used to separate the solvent from the solute. Fraction distillation uses additional equipment called the fractionating column. Simple distillation separates liquid at a boiling point of fifty degrees; it is used to purify salt water, leaving the salt in the flask; the liquid is made pure in one cycle; there is no need for repetition of the process. It uses simple equipment with two flasks and a condenser. It can be used to separate the solvent from the solute.

Simple Distillation is used in the separation of unstable components of the mixture from the other stable elements with higher boiling points. In Simple Distillation, the mixture is put in a flask and warmed. As the temperature rises and gets a boiling point, the unstable component comes out in vapor and passes through the long neck of a flask with a long tapering glass neck to consolidate at its bottom, back to liquid form.

During this process, the dangerous component is separated from the mixture. If there is more than one volatile component in the mix, they are all bound to get divided in vapor form simultaneously, making the process useless. Fractional Distillation is a process used to separate components with boiling points that are remarkably close to each other. The mechanism for fractional Distillation involves a fractionating column, through which the vaporized elements pass and go through repetitive phases of condensation and vaporization until all the components have separated.

One of the major differences between fractional and simple distillation is that simple distillation is used mostly to separate a mixture of liquids that have different boiling points, whereas fractional distillation is mostly when separating a mixture of liquids that have their boiling points very close to each other. This little difference in the two methods of separation is the reason why there are a few more steps in fractional distillation. For instance, in fractional distillation, there is a unit known as the fractionating column.

A fractionating column is needed in fractional distillation because it is an important unit in the separation of a mixture of liquids with similar boiling points. Most times, certain processes in fractional distillation are repeatedly done so as to get pure results. On the other hand, simple distillation is a very simple separation method compared to fractional distillation, as it does not require the use of a fractionating column.