EXPERIMENT # 1 09/11/18

DISTILLATION PROCESS

AIM: To separate water from Ethanol

INTRODUCTION
This is the separating technique that separates two miscible liquids depending on their
distribution between a vapor phase and liquid phase. This is a physical separation not chemical
separation. This process requires heat energy to separate the liquids since the mixed liquids have
different boiling points. There are two types of distillation namely; simple distillation and
fractional distillation. Fractional distillation is the technique used to separate a mixture of two
miscible liquids with different boiling points into its component parts or fractions.it separates
component solutions that differ by less than 25 degrees Celsius from each other under a pressure
of 1 atm. Whereas simple distillation is the boiling of a liquid mixture and condensing a vapor to
obtain a pure liquid. In this technique, the vapor is immediately channeled into a condenser.
Consequently, the distillate is not pure but rather its composition is identical to that of the vapors
at that given temperature and pressure. As a result, simple distillation is effective only when the
boiling points differ greatly or when separating liquids form non-volatile solid or oils. In this
experiment simple distillation was used to separate ethanol from water.

MATERIALS

 Ethanol
 Distilled water
 Gas burner
 Heating mantle
 Distillation apparatus
 Measuring cylinder
 Anhydrous copper sulphate
 Conical flask
 Test tubes
 Glass beads
  Spatula

PROCEDURES

1. A few drops of water and ethanol were poured in a 1 to 1 ratio onto separate watch
glasses and tried if they could ignite fire and the results were noted.
2. About 50cm3 of 1:1 mixture of ethanol and water was poured into a distilling flask with
porous pot pieces.
3. Cooling water was allowed to pass through the condenser and the flask was set to rest on
the heating mantle.
4. First few cm3 of the distillate were collected in the conical flask and the temperature at
which this was distilled was recorded.
5. The fractions which were passed over through successive ranges of about 4 degrees
Celsius were separated and tested by igniting a few drops.
6. A spatula-full of anhydrous copper II sulphate was added to each fraction and shaked

RESULTS

TEMPERATURE °C Color in anhydrous What happens when it is

cooper sulphate subjected to fire
74 Pale blue Burned very quickly
78 Pale blue Burned quickly
82 Pale blue Burned
86 Deep blue Burned
90 Deep blue Not burned

DISCUSSION

The first distillate was collected into the conical flask at 74°C. the few drops of collected
distillate were poured in the measuring cylinder and they were tested if they could ignite fire by
Bunsen burner. At the range between 74°C and 78°c the distillate burnt completely which shows
that the distillate contained pure ether. From (82 to 84) °C the distilled just burned meaning to
say it contained both water and ether. At 90°C the distillate did not burn completely meaning that
the distillate contained large amount of water. The distillate contained ethanol and water from
temperatures ranging from 74°C to 82°C that is why pale blue color was observed after adding
anhydrous copper sulphate. From 86°C going up the distillate was deep blue in color after adding
anhydrous copper sulpahate because it contained water only.

CONCLUSION

The results showed that the experiment was successfully done simply because from 74°C to
86°C the distillate ignited fire which implies that it contained ethanol but from 90°C fire was not
ignited which shows that the distillate contained water only. This means that ethanol was
separating from water by distillation process. During the experiment some errors were likely to
occur. These errors include poor measurements, color blindness, spills and failure to operate the
instruments, these errors were categorized as human parallax. Errors such as poor calibrated
instruments and broken glassware were classified as apparatus parallax.

REFERENCES
Wankat, P.C. “Separation process Engineering”, Shapman and Hall, London, 2006
NJENGA, H. N. (n.d.). Industrial chemistry . African virtual university.