Distillation+Apparatus



This is called a batch distillation (as opposed to a continuous distillation) which is an apparatus often found in laboratories. The liquid feed mixture to be distilled is placed into the round-bottomed flask and a fractioning column is fitted into the top. As the mixture is heated and boils, vapor rises up the column. Some cools and condense on the glass inside the column and runs back down into the liquid thereby refluxing the up-flowing vapor. Only the most volatile of the vapors stays in gaseous form all the way at the top. The vapor at the top of the column passes into the water-cooled condenser where it becomes a liquid. The process continues until all of the most volatile components in the liquid boil out of the mixture.

Source: Anonymous. Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Reflux_(distillation) (accessed Nov. 14, 2011)