Different boiling points and distillation| Separation Methods | Chemistry
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How Steam Distillation Works
Distillation is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by selective boiling and condensation. Distillation may result in essentially complete separation, 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 the 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.