Date:07/02/2014

Lecture No. 12

Extraction

When separation by distillation is ineffective or very difficult,

liquid extraction is one of the main alternatives to consider.
Close-boiling mixtures or substances that cannot withstand the
temperature of distillation, even under a vacuum, may often be
separated from impurities by extraction, which utilizes solubility
differences instead of vapor-pressure differences.
Extraction is the general practice of taking something dissolved
in one liquid and forcing it to become dissolved in another liquid.
This is done by taking advantage of the relative solubility of a
compound between two liquids.

Extraction

Suppose that you have a mixture of sugar in vegetable oil (it

tastes sweet!) and you want to separate the sugar from the oil.
You observe that the sugar particles are too tiny to filter and
you suspect that the sugar is partially dissolved in the vegetable
oil. Sugar is much more soluble in water than in vegetable oil,
and, as you know, water is immiscible (=not soluble) with oil.
By shaking the phases well, you increase the contact area
between the two phases. The sugar will move to the phase in
which it is most soluble that is water

Extraction

Filtration

Filtration is commonly the mechanical or physical operation

which is used for the separation of solids from fluids (liquids or
gases) by interposing a medium through which only the fluid can
pass and over size particle retained. The fluid that passes through
is called a filtrate. A membrane is any barrier which allows one
substance to pass through it more than another. There are two
general types of membrane separators: those which separate
based on the size of the molecules and those which separate
based on diffusivity.

Filtration

An example of membrane separator is your everyday vacuum

cleaner. Vacuum cleaners work by taking in air laden with dust
from your carpet. A filter inside the vacuum then traps the dust
particles (which are relatively large) and allows the air to pass
through it (since air particles are relatively small). A larger-scale
operation that works on the same principle is called a fabric filter
or "Baghouse", which is used in air pollution control or other
applications where a solid must be removed from a gas.

Condensation

Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from

gas phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization.
It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor
to liquid water when in contact with any surface.

Condensation generally occurs in the atmosphere when warm

air raises, cools and loses its capacity to hold water vapor. As a
result, excess water vapor condenses to form cloud droplets.
Condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is cooled and/or
compressed to its saturation 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".

Condensation

Sedimentation

Sedimentation is a physical water treatment process to remove

suspended solids from water. This is due to their motion through
the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces
can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration or
electromagnetism.
Solid particles entrained by the turbulence of moving water may
be removed naturally by sedimentation in the still water of tanks.
Settling basins or tanks are ponds constructed for the purpose of
removing entrained solids by sedimentation. Clarifiers are tanks
built with mechanical means for continuous removal of solids
being deposited by sedimentation.

Sedimentation