Steam distillation template

Steam generator with a safety tube, steam line into the mixture through a Claisen adapter, still head, condenser and receiver.

What the template shows

• Distil volatile oils that do not mix with water, below 100 °C
• Water out
• Steam line
• Steam bubbles up through the mixture (plant material or crude product with a little water)
• Safety tube
• Open to the air, foot under the water: water rises in it if the line blocks
• Steam generator
• Water boiled hard; fill no more than two-thirds
• Just under 100 °C: the vapour pressures of water and oil add, so the mixture boils below either alone
• Two-layer distillate
• Oil and water; separate the layers or extract the oil
• Reaction setup

Drawn with 25 shapes – every one editable in MolDraw.

Sources

• Zubrick, The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual, 10th ed., Wiley 2016 Textbook
• Furniss et al., Vogel's Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry, 5th ed., Longman 1989 Textbook
• Atkins, de Paula & Keeler, Atkins' Physical Chemistry, 11th ed., OUP 2018 Textbook