19th August 2010

3) (i) Today I learnt that factories make use of the fractionating column to separate crude oil into its simpler hydrocarbons. In order for separation to occur, the substances must have different boiling points.

Process:

- The crude oil is first burned in the furnace.

- The substances that have the lowest melting point and is the lightest will travel to the top of the column.

- The substances with the highest melting point pand is the heaviest will travel to the bottom of the column.

- The substances at the top are in gaseous state while the ones in the centre are in liquid state and the ones in the bottom are in solid-liquid state.

- more complex substances are found at the bottom while

less complex substances are found at the top.

(ii) Today we also went through of how the distillation set-up works.

process:

- The mixture is first heated in a beaker.

- The water evaporates into vapour.

- The vapour condenses in the condenser

- The water droplets flows down the condenser and into the conical flask

-If the temperature on the thermometer increases, it means that you are no longer collecting water.

(iii) Today we also compared some of the differences between fractional distillation and distillation

Some of the points are:

- Fractional distillation separates more than one substances while distillation separates two substances.

- Fractional distillation makes use of a fractionating column while distillation makes use of a Liebig condenser.

- Fractional distillation is used in factories while distillation is used in labs

2) (i) What other substances besides crude oil can be separated using fractional distillation?

(ii) How does the substances in the fractionating column stay in their corresponding segments?

1) I can apply what I learnt today when I need to separate a mixture of two iquids using distillation.