Question

How can sugar from sugar solution be separated?
A) By distillation
B) By evaporation
C) By sublimation
D) By filtration

Answer 1

Hint: The sugar solution is homogeneous. It can be separated by heating the solution. The mixture is heated such that the water leaves in the form of vapour leaving behind the pure crystals of sugar at the bottom of the flask.

Complete step by step answer:
Distillation is defined as the process by which different components of the mixture can be separated based on the boiling point of the component in the mixture. The components of the mixture get separated at their boiling point. For the solid-liquid mixture, it is advisable to heat the mixture until the boiling point of the liquid. The liquid converts into vapour leaving behind the solid.
We know that sugar is hygroscopic. It absorbs the water vapour from the surrounding and converts into the watery sugar. When heated, it starts decomposing over the$\text{ 18}{{\text{0}}^{\text{0}}}\text{C}$. The sugar is composed of carbon and hydrogen thus it does not boil. But sugar can crystallize. The temperature at which sugar crystallizes is much higher than the boiling point of water$\text{ 10}{{\text{0}}^{\text{0}}}\text{C}$.
Let's consider a sugar solution which is a pure mixture of water and sugar. The sugar can be separated by removing the water from the solution. Therefore, distillation is the process by which sugar can be separated from the sugar solution.
The solution is heated. The water in the sugar solution boils at the$\text{ 10}{{\text{0}}^{\text{0}}}\text{C}$. At this temperature, the water converts from liquid to the vapour from leaving behind the sugar at the bottom of the flask. The sugar is obtained in the crystal form. This process can also refer to crystallization. This is a method of purification for extracting a solid from the solution. This allows the separation of pure solute from the solvent. The distillation of sugar solution results in pure sugar.

Therefore, we can separate the sugar by the process of distillation to obtain pure crystals.
Hence, (A) is the correct option.


Note: The sugar can be separated using a process called evaporation. During the evaporation process, the water evaporated living behind the large chunks of sugar. However, the evaporation may char the sugar.