15 Examples of Decantation

The decantation is a physical procedure in which a solid or liquid is separated provided with greater density of another that, having a lower density, occupies the upper part of a heterogeneous mixture. For example: water purification, juice production, milk cream.

It is a process widely used in laboratories and various industrial settings, and should not be confused with sedimentation, which is the separation of solid waste in a suspension as a result of the gravity in the time.

For the decantation, the mixture must settle long enough for the denser substance to descend and can be extracted most of the time using a separatory funnel.

There are two ways in which it can be carried out, according to the state of aggregation of the participating substances:

It can serve you:

Examples of decantation

1. Sewage treatment. Dirty waters are usually more dense than clean ones since they have particles and other suspended substances, so it is possible to carry out a first process of filtered out through successive decantation procedures.
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2. Oil and water separation. In oil extraction processes, it is often necessary to resort to decantation to separate the lipids of water or solid waste product of the crushing. This is usually done through a separatory funnel.
3. Biodiesel and glycerin separation. It is a by-product of obtaining the fuel from fats and vegetable or animal oils. A settling process is often required to separate them as glycerin is much denser.
4. Water purification. In the food industry, water is usually made drinkable through decantation stages that allow the extraction of clays and materials in suspension that could influence the preparation of food.
5. Wine decanting. To separate the liquor from the residues that may have formed in the bottle, experts recommend a decanting process, which allows the sediment to be extracted and oxygenate the wine. This is usual in long-maturing wines.
6. Preparation of Mexican pozol. In the elaboration of this fermented corn and cocoa drink, the already cooked mixture is usually decanted to separate the solid or semi-solid residues from the drink as such.
7. Obtaining vinegars. During the refining processes of plant-based vinegar, decanting is often used to separate it from the heavier oils obtained during the vinegar process. raw material.
8. Oil refining. Throughout the refining of oil, various types of hydrocarbons useful, both in gas and liquid form. Settling can be used in some stages of refining where it is necessary to separate several liquids of different densities.
9. Maritime oil extraction. It is also the case, when extracting oil from the seabed, from the mix of the hydrocarbon with seawater, a condition that is remedied through the decantation of the hydrocarbon, much denser than water. The hydrocarbon is stored and the water is reintegrated into the sea.
10. In the preparation of sauces. Decanting is often used to separate substances from each other throughout culinary preparation, especially to extract fats and other substances. liquids unwanted from some usable solution, such as sauces.
11. Juice making. For example, the juice of tamarind or other fibrous fruits, in which the liquid is separated from the pulp or dense paste from the fiber, by means of simple decantation and sedimentation.
12. Ashes in a volcanic eruption. Although the ashes are very light and remain suspended for a time in the air, little by little little the effect of gravity and density will cause them to settle, leaving the air clean from new.
13. Shake it before using. Many products have this recommendation on their packaging: it is because during a certain period of rest they have been able to separate by action gravity and by difference in their densities, (or by sedimentation) its components and only by shaking them can they recover their homogeneity.
14. Mercury recovery in aquifer pollution. Numerous accidents or practices (such as illegal mining) can release mercury into water from rivers and lakes, generating a lot environmental damage. In those cases, decanting can be used to extract the mercury from portions of water and try to reverse the damage.
15. The cream of the milk. By natural decantation, the milk at rest separates the cream or curd (lipid content), a yellowish and dense substance, from the rest of the milk, to the point of being able to be withdrawn mechanically.

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