Separations Unit Operations You Didn't Learn about in School

The ingredients for most chemical products must be separated from a reaction mixture or natural source. The most commonly chosen separation process is distillation. But for many chemicals, distillation is not a choice. Mixtures containing chemicals that are heat sensitive, highly viscous or nonvolatile must be separated by other processes. Some of these other separation processes include crystallization, freeze drying, filtration and flotation. Often separating agents, such as solvents, flocculants, or nucleators, are needed. The talks in this session will discuss the guidelines for the selection and design of such separation processes and show examples demonstrating their advantages and disadvantages.