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5.5: Steam Distillation

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    Steam distillation is analogous to simple distillation, the main difference being that steam (or water) is used in the distilling flask along with the material to be distilled. Experimentally the setups are arranged more or less the same, with small differences being how the steam is added to the flask: either indirectly if a steam line is available in the building, or directly by boiling water in the flask.

    • 5.5A: Overview of Steam Distillation
      Steam distillation is analogous to simple distillation, the main difference being that steam (or water) is used in the distilling flask along with the material to be distilled. Experimentally the setups are arranged more or less the same with small differences being how the steam is added to the flask: either indirectly if a steam line is available in the building, or directly by boiling water in the flask.
    • 5.5B: Uses of Steam Distillation
      The most common use of steam distillation is the extraction of natural products from plant materials. This is the main industrial method for obtaining plant essential oils, used in fragrances and personal hygiene products. As so many products can be isolated in this way, this technique is regularly performed in teaching labs.
    • 5.5C: Separation Theory
      egular" distillation, separation is attempted on a mixture of components that dissolve in one another. When the components in the distilling flask do not dissolve in one another, such as when water and nonpolar organic compounds are present, the vapor produced from these mixtures is different. The components act independently from one another, and the partial pressure from each component is no longer determined by its mole fraction. The partial pressure of each component is its vapor pressure.
    • 5.5D: Step-by-Step Procedures for Steam Distillation
      A steam distillation apparatuses are shown that uses boiling water in the distilling flask or a steam line. In this discussion of step-by-step procedure for steam distillation , it is assumed that readers have previously performed a simple distillation, so in this section are described differences between simple and steam distillations.

    Contributors and Attributions

    • Lisa Nichols (Butte Community College). Organic Chemistry Laboratory Techniques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Complete text is available online.

    This page titled 5.5: Steam Distillation is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lisa Nichols via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.