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

2139 Views

See similar Chemistry GCSE tutors

Related Chemistry GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Nitrogen has an atomic number of 7 and mass number of 14, an isotope of nitrogen has a mass number of 17. Explain what an isotope is and state how many electrons, protons and neutrons this isotope has?


Define what 1 mole is


What is the first ionisation energy? Write the equation for the first ionisation of Chlorine.


Describe what happens to copper ions during electrolysis of copper sulphate.


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:

© 2025 by IXL Learning