extractive distillation


extractive distillation

[ik′strak·tiv ‚dis·tə′lā·shən] (chemical engineering) A distillation process to separate components from eutectic mixtures; a solution of the mixture is cooled, causing one component to crystallize out and the other to remain in solution; used to separate p-xylene and m-xylene, using n-pentane as the solvent.