Answer the following questions with respect to destructive distillation of wood.
What do you mean by the term destructive distillation?
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Solution
Destructive distillation
The process of heating coal in the absence of air is called the destructive distillation of coal. Coal contains a number of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur. When coal is heated in the absence of air, a number of products are obtained.
Take two hard glass boiling tubes. In one tube take small pieces of softwood and some water in another tube. The wood-containing tube is kept horizontally and the other (water-containing) is fixed vertically. Start heating wood gently and then strongly.
You observe that volatile substance leaves the wood on heating and gets condensed in another tube containing water. These volatile substances form a deep black liquid which settles at the bottom of the tube This deep black liquid is called wood tar and the gas which is escaping out of the tube is called wood gas. When heating is stopped and the boiling tube is cooled, a black residue is left in the boiling tube. This black residue is called charcoal.
