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.

Related Chemistry GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Why do metals conduct electricity?


By discussing the structure and bonding properties of chlorine and sodium chloride, explain why chlorine is a gas at room temperature but sodium chloride is a solid.


How can I increase the rate of reaction between two substances, without changing the chemicals I use?


What mass of calcium carbonate would you need to react with dilute hydrochloric acid to produce 10 g calcium chloride?