Fractional Distillation

Key Stage 4

Meaning

A diagram of a Fractional Distillation tower used to separate different oils in Crude Oil.

Fractional distillation is a technique which can be used to separate two or more solvents from solution.

About Fractional Distillation

Fractional Distillation can be used for:

• Separating a solution to recover multiple solvents.

Fractional Distillation cannot be used for:

• Separating two solutes from each other in solution - Chromatography
• Separating an insoluble solid from a soluble solid - Filtration

About the Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil

Crude Oil is separated using fractional distillation.

Fractional distillation is used to separate the different fractions of crude oil which each have different boiling points.

Fractional Distillation relies on the different boiling points of liquids. By heating all liquids beyond their Boiling Point they can be turned into a gas. Each gas can then be cooled and condensed in tubes kept just below the boiling point of each fraction.

The fractions of crude oil separated during fractional distillation are:

• Natural Gas
• LPG
• Gasoline
• Diesel
• Kerosene
• Fuel Oil
• Lubricating Oil
• Bitumen