Of course, the history of distillation does not end there. But today we use it for more than just spirits. Distillation Today Distillation Categories Distillation services can be sorted out into many different categories. System composition System refers to the chemical componets present in the mixture being distilled. The two main groups are binary distillation and multicomponent distillation .
Binary distillation is a separation of only two chemicals.
Multicomponent distillation is the separation of a mixture of chemicals. A good example is petroleum refining. Crude oil is a very complex mixture of hydrocarbons with literally thousands of different molecules. Nearly all commercial distillation is multicomponent distillation. The theory and practice of multicomponent distillation can be very complex.