Essential Oil andamp; Hydrosol Distillation Kit @ Hen of the Woods Artisan Acres, NS, Canada
Fractional distillation is a modified version of the simple distillation technique which allows for the separation of a complex solution into its different components in a single distillation run by taking advantage of the difference in their boiling points.
A simple distillation is effective if you intend to isolate a volatile component (those that evaporate more readily at lower temperatures) from one that is not volatile in a solution, or if there is a marked difference in their boiling temperatures. When you distil an alcohol solution by means of a simple distillation the distillate obtained will have a higher concentration of alcohol but some water will also be present. You'll have to redistill this solution repeatedly in order to obtain higher concentrations of alcohol especially if you want to get into the 80% a/v range and above. Fractional distillation improves on that by effectively performing multiple distillations in a single run.