New Era University

#9 Central Avenue, New Era, Quezon City

College of Engineering and Architecture

Research Activity
Steam Distillation

Name: Hon, Leon Morthy D.

Schedule: F 1:00-4:00PM

Yr. & Course: BSCE-1

Date: October 7, 2016

_________________________
Prof. Cyda O. Meimban

Steam Distillation is the distillation of a liquid in a current of steam, used

especially to purify liquids that are not very volatile and are immiscible with
water. It is a special type of distillation for temperature sensitive materials
like natural aromatic compounds.

It is used in the isolation of essential oils, for use in perfumes, for example.
In this method, steam is passed through the plant material containing the
desired oils. Steam distillation is also sometimes used to separate
intermediate or final products during the synthesis of complex organic
compounds.
Steam distillation also is an important means of separating fatty acids from
mixtures and for treating crude products such as tall oils to extract and
separate fatty acids, soaps and other commercially valuable organic
compounds

REACTION:
I learned a lot about distillation in this research. I found out about simple,
fractional, and steam distillation and their differences and how they can
be applied to separate certain mixtures. The set-up looks complicated
but difficulty is a matter of perspective. A professional will think a certain
task that another person thinks is hard to be trivial.