Your UANet ID: _____________________ Chemical Thinking U1 M1: Discussion 2 | 1

Distilled Spirits
Hard liquors or spirits, such as brandy, whisky, and tequila, are commonly produced by fermentation of
carbohydrate-rich natural products. In the process, a mixture containing water (C), ethanol (B), methanol
(A), and many other components is generated. Methanol needs to be removed because of its toxic
properties; water is extracted to produce beverages with various concentrations of ethanol.

1. What differentiating characteristic could be used to separate methanol, ethanol, and water? What
experimental technique could be used to separate these substances?

2. As you heat up the alcoholic mixture, in which order will the

three substances (A-Methanol, B-Ethanol, C-Water) separate?

3. At which temperatures will each fraction distill?

4. Is there any advantage in changing the pressure at which the

distillation is performed? Why?

Separating Plastics
A mixture of plastics can be sorted by flotation using liquids of different densities in which some plastics will sink
while others will float to the surface. Imagine that you are assigned the task of designing a strategy to separate
the plastics listed in the table. For that purpose you have access to the following substances: Water (ρ = 1.00
g/mL), Ethanol (ρ = 0.789
g/mL), and Salt (sodium Plastic PETE HDPE PP PS
chloride). You can use these
Density (g/mL) 1.29-1.40 0.95-0.97 0.90-0.91 1.04-1.07
substances as provided, or use
them to prepare mixtures.

The graphs represent

measurements of the density
of mixtures of water-ethanol
and water-salt at different
concentrations (T= 20 oC)
Your UANet ID: _____________________ Chemical Thinking U1 M1: Discussion 2 | 2

Use the information provided to design a strategy to separate the plastics using the minimum number of steps
and liquid mixtures. Build a separation flow chart to represent the sequence of steps you would follow.

Refining Petroleum
Crude oil (petroleum) is a mixture of hundreds of substances). In an oil refinery, crude oil is separated into
“fractions” by fractional distillation. During the distillation process, crude oil is injected into a boiler and heated.
The vapor passes into a distillation column with a temperature gradient, coolest at the top, hottest at the bottom.
Different substances condense in trays at different temperatures according to their boiling points.

Imagine that you have to design a column to separate

crude oil with following components listed in the
table. The temperatures at the top and bottom of
your column are 15 oC and 360 oC, respectively.

At what temperatures would you place trays to

separate the following fractions? What substances
would you get in each fraction? Justify your
reasoning.

1. Liquid fuels less volatile than water that can be used in cars at temperatures between 5 oC
and 38 oC.

2. Gaseous fuels that can be used for cooking and heating houses in Tucson.

3. Liquids with a higher volatility than water that can be used as solvents in industries and labs.

4. Solid paraffin waxes that can be used to make candles in Tucson.