What You Need to Know
Relative volatility is a measure comparing the vapor pressures of the components in a liquid mixture of chemicals. This quantity is widely used in designing large industrial distillation processes. In effect, it indicates the ease or difficulty of using distillation to separate the more volatile components from the less volatile components in a mixture. By convention, relative volatility is usually denoted as .
Steps
- 1.
Baijiu production (China): Separates volatile aroma compounds during multiple distillations
- 2.
Tequila distillation (Mexico): Isolates desired flavor compounds from agave
- 3.
Essential oil extraction (Middle East): Concentrates aromatic compounds from plant materials
The Science
Primary Reaction
Separation of ethanol and water