Question

Explain the difference between Evaporation and Distillation.

Answer 1

Distillation is a process of separating the component substances from a liquid mixture by selective evaporation and condensation Distillation may result in essentially complete separation (nearly pure components), or it may be a partial separation that increases the concentration of selected components of the mixture. In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of mixture's components. In industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not a chemical reaction.

Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs from the surface of a liquid into a gaseous phase that is not saturated with the evaporating substance. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which is characterized by bubbles of saturated vapor forming in the liquid phase. Steam produced in a boiler is another example of evaporation occurring in a saturated vapor phase. Evaporation that occurs directly from the solid phase below the melting point, as commonly observed with ice at or below freezing or moth crystals (napthalene orparadichlorobenzene), is called sublimation.

Answer 2

Evaporation

1. Liquid part is evaporated from the solution to obtain the solid substance.
2. We cannot obtain liquid component.

Example: Salt is obtained from seawater.

Distillation

1. Liquid is evaporated from a solution and then cooled to obtain pure water.
2. We can obtain both solid and liquid components.

Example: Pure water is obtained from impure tap water.