What is fractional distillation and how does it work.

Fractional distillation uses a fractional distillation tower, split into different layers each with a different temperature. It is used to sperate crude oil into the many different fuels used commonly in everyday use and it is also commonly used to seperate liquified air.
It works by seperating the fractions to different temperatures, hotter at the bottom, and cooler at the top. What this does is allows only the more volatile fuels to be turned into a gas at each stage, and the less volatile stay as a liquid at the current stage of the process.

Answered by Chemistry tutor

2211 Views

See similar Chemistry GCSE tutors

Related Chemistry GCSE answers

All answers ▸

What techniques would you use to separate: 1) different colour inks from black ink. 2) ethanol from ethanol and water 3) salt from water


Why do we use cracking?


What are the effects of pressure changes for a system in equilibrium.


Sodium Hydroxide can react with sulfuric acid in an acid base reaction. Outline the equation for this reaction, name the product. Finally a titration reaction is conducted. Determine the mass of NaOH needed to neutralise 12.4cm^3 of 0.10moldm^-3 H2SO4.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning