1.
Distillation
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Distillation is a process of separating the component or substances from a liquid mixture by selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation may result in complete separation, or it may be a partial separation that increases the concentration of selected components of the mixture. In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of the mixtures components, in industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not a chemical reaction. For example, In the fossil fuel industry distillation is a class of operation in obtaining materials from crude oil for fuels. Distillation permits separation of air into its components — notably oxygen, nitrogen, Distillation of fermented products produces distilled beverages with a high alcohol content, or separates out other fermentation products of commercial value. An installation for distillation, especially of alcohol, is a distillery, the distillation equipment is a still. Distillation is an old method of artificial desalination. Aristotle wrote about the process in his Meteorologica and even that ordinary wine possesses a kind of exhalation, later evidence of distillation comes from Greek alchemists working in Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Distilled water has been known since at least c,200, when Alexander of Aphrodisias described the process. Work on distilling other liquids continued in early Byzantine Egypt under the Greek-Egyptian Zosimus of Panopolis, Distillation in China could have begun during the Eastern Han Dynasty, but archaeological evidence indicates that actual distillation of beverages began in the Jin and Southern Song dynasties. A still was found in a site in Qinglong, Hebei province dating to the 12th century. Distilled beverages were more common during the Yuan dynasty, arabs learned the process from the Alexandrians and used it extensively in their chemical experiments. Clear evidence of the distillation of alcohol comes from the School of Salerno in the 12th century, fractional distillation was developed by Tadeo Alderotti in the 13th century. In 1500, German alchemist Hieronymus Braunschweig published Liber de arte destillandi the first book dedicated to the subject of distillation. In 1651, John French published The Art of Distillation the first major English compendium of practice and this includes diagrams with people in them showing the industrial rather than bench scale of the operation. As alchemy evolved into the science of chemistry, vessels called retorts became used for distillations, riveted joints were often kept tight by using various mixtures, for instance a dough made of rye flour. These alembics often featured a system around the beak, using cold water for instance. Today, the retorts and pot stills have largely supplanted by more efficient distillation methods in most industrial processes
2.
Chemical engineering
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A chemical engineer designs large-scale processes that convert chemicals, raw materials, living cells, microorganisms and energy into useful forms and products. A1996 British Journal for the History of Science article cites James F. Donnelly for mentioning an 1839 reference to chemical engineering in relation to the production of sulfuric acid. In the same however, George E. Davis, an English consultant, was credited for having coined the term. The History of Science in United States, An Encyclopedia puts this at around 1890, Chemical engineering, describing the use of mechanical equipment in the chemical industry, became common vocabulary in England after 1850. By 1910, the profession, chemical engineer, was already in use in Britain. Chemical engineering emerged upon the development of operations, a fundamental concept of the discipline of chemical engineering. Most authors agree that Davis invented the concept of operations if not substantially developed it. He gave a series of lectures on unit operations at the Manchester Technical School in 1887, three years before Davis lectures, Henry Edward Armstrong taught a degree course in chemical engineering at the City and Guilds of London Institute. Armstrongs course failed simply because its graduates, were not especially attractive to employers. Employers of the time would have rather hired chemists and mechanical engineers, starting from 1888, Lewis M. Norton taught at MIT the first chemical engineering course in the United States. Nortons course was contemporaneous and essentially similar with Armstrongs course, both courses, however, simply merged chemistry and engineering subjects. Its practitioners had difficulty convincing engineers that they were engineers and chemists that they were not simply chemists, unit operations was introduced into the course by William Hultz Walker in 1905. By the early 1920s, unit operations became an important aspect of engineering at MIT and other US universities. For instance, it defined chemical engineering to be a science of itself, unit operations in a 1922 report, and with which principle, it had published a list of academic institutions which offered satisfactory chemical engineering courses. Meanwhile, promoting chemical engineering as a science in Britain lead to the establishment of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 1922. IChemE likewise helped make unit operations considered essential to the discipline, by the 1940s, it became clear that unit operations alone was insufficient in developing chemical reactors. While the predominance of unit operations in chemical engineering courses in Britain, along with other novel concepts, such process systems engineering, a second paradigm was defined. Transport phenomena gave an analytical approach to chemical engineering while PSE focused on its elements, such as control system
3.
Oil refinery
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Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, the crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products, an oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry. The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the tanks and are therefore hazardous. Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to power for ships, automobiles, aircraft engines, lawn mowers, dirt bikes. Different boiling points allow the hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation, Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying molecular masses, forms and lengths such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes, alkenes, dienes, and alkynes. Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold without further processing, smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by processes such as alkylation, or more commonly, dimerization. The octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming, the final step in gasoline production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures, and other properties to meet product specifications. Another method for reprocessing and upgrading these intermediate products uses a process to separate usable oil from the waste asphaltene material. Oil refineries are large plants, processing about a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the capacity, many of the units operate continuously, as opposed to processing in batches. The high capacity also makes process optimization and advanced process control very desirable, petroleum products are usually grouped into four categories, light distillates, middle distillates, heavy distillates and residuum. This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and separated into fractions as in the above drawing and these are not usually transported but instead are blended or processed further on-site. Chemical plants are often adjacent to oil refineries or a number of further chemical processes are integrated into it. For example, light hydrocarbons are steam-cracked in a plant. Using the Claus process, hydrogen sulfide is afterwards transformed to elementary sulfur to be sold to the chemical industry, the rather large heat energy freed by this process is directly used in the other parts of the refinery. Often an electrical plant is combined into the whole refinery process to take up the excess heat. Desalter unit washes out salt from the oil before it enters the atmospheric distillation unit
4.
Vacuum
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Vacuum is space void of matter. The word stems from the Latin adjective vacuus for vacant or void, an approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. In engineering and applied physics on the hand, vacuum refers to any space in which the pressure is lower than atmospheric pressure. The Latin term in vacuo is used to describe an object that is surrounded by a vacuum, the quality of a partial vacuum refers to how closely it approaches a perfect vacuum. Other things equal, lower gas pressure means higher-quality vacuum, for example, a typical vacuum cleaner produces enough suction to reduce air pressure by around 20%. Ultra-high vacuum chambers, common in chemistry, physics, and engineering, operate below one trillionth of atmospheric pressure, outer space is an even higher-quality vacuum, with the equivalent of just a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter on average. In the electromagnetism in the 19th century, vacuum was thought to be filled with a medium called aether, in modern particle physics, the vacuum state is considered the ground state of matter. Vacuum has been a frequent topic of debate since ancient Greek times. Evangelista Torricelli produced the first laboratory vacuum in 1643, and other techniques were developed as a result of his theories of atmospheric pressure. A torricellian vacuum is created by filling a glass container closed at one end with mercury. Vacuum became an industrial tool in the 20th century with the introduction of incandescent light bulbs and vacuum tubes. The recent development of human spaceflight has raised interest in the impact of vacuum on human health, the word vacuum comes from Latin an empty space, void, noun use of neuter of vacuus, meaning empty, related to vacare, meaning be empty. Vacuum is one of the few words in the English language that contains two consecutive letters u. Historically, there has been dispute over whether such a thing as a vacuum can exist. Ancient Greek philosophers debated the existence of a vacuum, or void, in the context of atomism, Aristotle believed that no void could occur naturally, because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill any incipient rarity that might give rise to a void. Almost two thousand years after Plato, René Descartes also proposed a geometrically based alternative theory of atomism, without the problematic nothing–everything dichotomy of void, by the ancient definition however, directional information and magnitude were conceptually distinct. The explanation of a clepsydra or water clock was a topic in the Middle Ages. Although a simple wine skin sufficed to demonstrate a partial vacuum, in principle and he concluded that airs volume can expand to fill available space, and he suggested that the concept of perfect vacuum was incoherent. However, according to Nader El-Bizri, the physicist Ibn al-Haytham and the Mutazili theologians disagreed with Aristotle and Al-Farabi, using geometry, Ibn al-Haytham mathematically demonstrated that place is the imagined three-dimensional void between the inner surfaces of a containing body
5.
Laboratory glassware
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Laboratory glassware refers to a variety of equipment, traditionally made of glass, used for scientific experiments and other work in science, especially in chemistry and biology laboratories. There are several types of glass, each used for different purposes, borosilicate glass, which is commonly used in reagent bottles, can withstand thermal stress. Quartz glass, which is common in cuvettes, can withstand high temperatures and is transparent in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Darkened brown or amber glass, which is common in dark storage bottles, can block ultraviolet, heavy-wall glass, which is common in glass pressure reactors, can withstand pressurized applications. There are many different kinds of laboratory glassware items and these include, Examples of glassware containers include, Beakers are simple cylindrical shaped containers used to hold reagents or samples. Flasks are narrow-necked glass containers, typically conical or spherical, used in a laboratory to hold reagents or samples, Examples flasks include the Erlenmeyer flasks and Florence flasks. Bottles are containers with narrow openings generally used to store reagents or samples, jars are cylindrical containers with wide openings that may be sealed. Bell jars are used to contain vacuums, watch glasses are shallow glass dishes used as an evaporating surface or to cover a beaker. Glass evaporating dishes are used to evaporate materials, microscope slides are thin strips used to hold items under a microscope. Glass petri dishes are used to living cells. Examples of glassware used for include, Graduated cylinders are cylindrical containers used for volumetric measurements. Burettes are used to precise amounts of liquid reagents. Glass pipettes are used to transfer precise quantities of fluids, Glass Ebulliometers are used to accurately measure the boiling point of liquids. Other examples of glassware includes, Glass tubes are cylindrical pieces of glassware used to hold or transport fluids, stirring rods are used to mix chemicals. Funnels are used to get materials through a narrow opening, condensers are used to cool hot liquids or vapors. Glass retorts are used for distillation, drying pistols are used to free samples from traces of water, or other impurities. Most laboratory glassware is currently mass-produced, but large laboratories may employ a blower to construct specialized pieces. This construction forms a field of glassblowing requiring precise control of shape
6.
Vacuum distillation
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This distillation method works on the principle that boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of a liquid exceeds the ambient pressure. Vacuum distillation is used with or without heating the mixture, laboratory-scale vacuum distillation is used when liquids to be distilled have high atmospheric boiling points or chemically change at temperatures near their atmospheric boiling points. Temperature sensitive materials also require vacuum distillation to remove solvents from the mixture without damaging the product, another reason vacuum distillation is used is that compared to steam distillation there is a lower level of residue build up. This is important in applications where heat transfer is produced using heat exchangers. There are many applications for vacuum distillation as well as many types of distillation set-ups. Safety is an important consideration when using glassware as part of the set-up, all of the glass components should be carefully examined for scratches and cracks which could result in implosions when the vacuum is applied. Wrapping as much of the glassware with tape as is practical helps to prevent dangerous scattering of glass shards in the event of an implosion, rotary evaporation is a type of vacuum distillation apparatus used to remove bulk solvents from the liquid being distilled. It is also used by regulatory agencies for determining the amount of solvents in paint, coatings. Rotary evaporation set-ups include an apparatus referred to as a Rotovap which rotates the distillation flask to enhance the distillation, rotating the flask throws up liquid on the walls of the flask and thus increases the surface area for evaporation. Heat is often applied to the distillation flask by partially immersing it in a heated bath of water or oil. Typically, the vacuum in such systems is generated by a water aspirator or a pump of some type. Some compounds have high boiling point temperatures as well as being air sensitive, a simple laboratory vacuum distillation glassware set-up can be used, in which the vacuum can be replaced with an inert gas after the distillation is complete. However, this is not a completely satisfactory system if it is desired to collect fractions under a reduced pressure, for better results or for very air sensitive compounds, either a Perkin triangle distillation set-up or a short-path distillation set-up can be used. To do this, the distillate receiver vessel is first isolated from the vacuum by means of the Teflon valves, the vacuum over the sample is then replaced with an inert gas and the distillate receiver can then be stoppered and removed from the system. Vacuum distillation of moderately air/water-sensitive liquid can be done using standard Schlenk-line techniques, when assembling the set-up apparatus, all of the connecting lines are clamped so that they cannot pop off. Care is taken to prevent potential bumping as the liquid in the still pot degases, while establishing the vacuum, the flow of coolant is started through the short-path distillation head. Once the desired vacuum is established, heat is applied to the still pot, if needed, the first portion of distillate can be discarded by purging with inert gas and changing out the distillate receiver. When the distillation is complete, the heat is removed, the connection is closed, and inert gas is purged through the distillation head
7.
Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
8.
Brewing
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Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a brewer, at home by a homebrewer. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies. The basic ingredients of beer are water and a starch source such as malted barley. Most beer is fermented with a brewers yeast and flavoured with hops, less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava. Secondary sources, such as maize, rice, or sugar, may also be used, sometimes to reduce cost, or to add a feature, the proportion of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill. Steps in the process include malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering. There are three main methods, warm, cool and spontaneous. Fermentation may take place in an open or closed fermenting vessel, there are several additional brewing methods, such as barrel aging, double dropping, and Yorkshire Square. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in cuneiform from ancient Mesopotamia. Ethnographic studies and archaeological records indicate that brewing alcohol was primary an activity engaged in by women, chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date, in Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6, 000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanitys ability to develop technology, Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. Ale produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. More than 133 billion litres are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion in 2006
9.
Steam distillation
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Steam distillation is a special type of distillation for temperature sensitive materials like natural aromatic compounds. It once was a laboratory method for purification of organic compounds. Steam distillation remains important in industrial sectors. Many organic compounds tend to decompose at high sustained temperatures, separation by distillation at the normal boiling points is not an option, so water or steam is introduced into the distillation apparatus. The water vapor carries small amounts of the compounds to the condensation flask. This process effectively allows for distillation at lower temperatures, reducing the deterioration of the desired products, if the substances to be distilled are very sensitive to heat, steam distillation may be applied under reduced pressure, thereby reducing the operating temperature further. After distillation the vapors are condensed, usually the immediate product is a two-phase system of water and the organic distillate, allowing for separation of the components by decantation, partitioning or other suitable methods. Consequently, the pressure of the whole system increases. Boiling begins when the sum of the pressures of the two immiscible liquids just exceeds the atmospheric pressure. In this way, many organic compounds insoluble in water can be purified at a well below the point at which decomposition occurs. For example, the point of bromobenzene is 156 °C and the boiling point of water is 100 °C. Thus, bromobenzene can be distilled at a temperature 61 °C below its normal boiling point. Steam distillation is employed in the isolation of essential oils, for use in perfumes, in this method, steam is passed through the plant material containing the desired oils. Eucalyptus oil and orange oil are obtained by this method on an industrial scale, steam distillation is also sometimes used to separate intermediate or final products during the synthesis of complex organic compounds. Steam distillation is also used in petroleum refineries and petrochemical plants where it is commonly referred to as steam stripping. On a lab scale, steam distillations are carried out using steam generated outside the system and piped through macerated biomass or steam generated in-situ using a Clevenger-type apparatus
10.
Condensation
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Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gas phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of evaporation. The word most often refers to the water cycle and it can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapour to liquid water when in contact with a liquid or solid surface or cloud condensation nuclei within the atmosphere. When the transition happens from the phase into the solid phase directly. A few distinct reversibility scenarios emerge here with respect to the nature of the surface, absorption into the surface of a liquid —is reversible as evaporation. Adsorption onto solid surface at pressures and temperatures higher than the species triple point—also reversible as evaporation, adsorption onto solid surface at pressures and temperatures lower than the species triple point—is reversible as sublimation. Condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is cooled and/or compressed to its limit when the molecular density in the gas phase reaches its maximal threshold. Vapor cooling and compressing equipment that collects condensed liquids is called a condenser, psychrometry measures the rates of condensation through evaporation into the air moisture at various atmospheric pressures and temperatures. Water is the product of its vapor condensation—condensation is the process of such phase conversion, condensation is a crucial component of distillation, an important laboratory and industrial chemistry application. Because condensation is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it can often be used to water in large quantities for human use. Many structures are made solely for the purpose of collecting water from condensation, such as air wells and it is also a crucial process in forming particle tracks in a cloud chamber. In this case, ions produced by an incident particle act as centers for the condensation of the vapor producing the visible cloud trails. Furthermore, condensation is a step in many industrial processes, such as power generation, water desalination, thermal management, refrigeration. Numerous living beings use water made accessible by condensation, a few examples of these are the Australian Thorny Devil, the darkling beetles of the Namibian coast, and the Coast Redwoods of the West Coast of the United States. To alleviate these issues, the air humidity needs to be lowered. This can be done in a number of ways, for example opening windows, turning on extractor fans, using dehumidifiers, drying clothes outside and covering pots and pans whilst cooking. Air conditioning or ventilation systems can be installed that help remove moisture from the air, the amount of water vapour that can be stored in the air can be increased simply by increasing the temperature. However, this can be a double edged sword as most condensation in the home occurs when warm, as the air is cooled, it can no longer hold as much water vapour. This leads to deposition of water on the cool surface and this is very apparent when central heating is used in combination with single glazed windows in winter
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