Destructive distillation

Destructive distillation decomposes a solid by strong heating without air, producing volatile products and a solid residue. It is used to obtain substances such as charcoal, coke, and coal tar from organic materials.

Pyrolysis: The thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, usually in an oxygen-poor environment. Destructive distillation is a form of pyrolysis that collects and separates the products.
Coke oven: An industrial furnace that heats coal without air to produce coke and volatile by-products. Coke ovens carry out large-scale destructive distillation of coal.
Johann Rudolph Glauber: A seventeenth-century German-Dutch chemist known for chemical investigations and the preparation of mineral salts. His writings describe early experiments with products obtained by heating organic materials.
Combustion: A high-temperature chemical reaction in which a fuel reacts with an oxidant, commonly oxygen, releasing heat. Unlike destructive distillation, combustion consumes material in oxygen rather than preserving a solid residue.
Thermal cracking: The breakdown of large molecules into smaller ones through heat, often used in petroleum refining. It illustrates how heating can split complex molecules into volatile products.
Coal gas: A combustible gas mixture produced by heating coal in the absence of air. It was collected as a fuel among the volatile products of coal distillation.
George Stahl: An eighteenth-century German physician and chemist associated with the phlogiston theory. His chemical framework shaped early interpretations of products released by heating.
Calcination: The strong heating of a solid to drive off volatile substances or cause thermal decomposition. Calcination often occurs in air and targets a solid product rather than collected organic vapors.
Volatile organic compounds: Carbon-containing chemicals that readily evaporate at ordinary temperatures. Many organic vapors released during destructive distillation belong to this broad chemical group.
Wood gas: A combustible gas mixture generated by heating wood under oxygen-limited conditions. It is a gaseous product of the destructive distillation of wood.

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Pine tarNarrower topic: Pine tar forms as volatile compounds from heated pine wood condense into a dark liquid.