1.name the methods by which the following mixtures can be separeted? a.kerosene from crude oil b.pure water from sea water
1 Answer
A. Kerosene can be separated from crude oil using fractional distillation
B. Pure water can be separated from sea water by either distillation or reverse osmosis
Explanation:
A. Kerosene is one of the 200+ components which form the mixture, crude oil. Since crude oil is a mixture of miscible hydrocarbons predominantly, the only way to effectively separate kerosene from this mixture would be to use one of the characteristic properties of pure kerosene. One such property is it's boiling point.
Fractional distillation is used for this separation which involves heating the mixture from a low temperature and eventually increasing it gradually step by step.
During these steps the compound with a boiling point corresponding to particular temperature is collected as a vapour and condensed back.
B. Pure water can be separated by simple distillation from sea water. The boiling point of pure water is 100 degree celsius but the impurities dissolved in sea water(salts) have extremely high boiling point.
Since the distillation method is energy intensive, we can also use the process of reverse osmosis.
In reverse osmosis, sea water is passed through a membrane(under pressure) with pores which are just big enough to allow the relatively smaller water molecules to pass through but the larger salt particles cannot and hence are collected on one side of the membrane.
Think of this like convicts trapped in a cell. The bars of the cell can stop the convict from escaping but a mouse would easily escape out due to its smaller size.
