Decantation

The term decanting (from the French: décanter for decant, drain, clarify, settle, decant or alchemist Latin decanthare to Latin canthus = beak of a pitcher ) is the process of separating one or more, more or less separated the present phase by decantation or removal from a vessel, the withdrawn decantate phase is mentioned.

Usually it is the casting or continuous draining the clear supernatant liquid from a suspension remaining after sedimentation (sediment; German: sediment ) or centrifugation. In principle, for example, a hydrocyclone, isotope separation in a gas centrifuge or centrifugal extractors also work on the principle of decantation.

Device for decanting called decanter, such as decanters or in the art solid bowl screw centrifuge, in which both phases are separated continuously discharged.

Decant, Decant Wine

An everyday example of decanting is the careful decanting of wine directly from the bottle without disturbing and distribute the sediment. Two different objectives are:

Separation of the wine from the lees ( decanting )

For wines that have formed in the bottle a sediment, decanting has the function of the wine of unwanted sediment to separate ( "Depot" ) and Weinstein. Since the contact with atmospheric oxygen during decanting can cause just in older wines to " upset " - so to oxidation and deterioration - is used to such potentially critical cases a narrow Decanter with low air mirror surface or fill the wine carefully into another clean bottle order without the depot mitzugießen. It leaves to a small residual wine depot in the first bottle and turns it into the final phase a little to the inside to tie the depot to the glass below the neck. In order to identify the depot well, holding the bottle while decanting before a bright light; traditionally a candle.

For the particularly gentle decantation of red wine using a decanter machine, which ensures a smooth and quiet pouring. The bottle is placed directly in a horizontal position as possible from the storage rack into the machine and after uncorking is tilted by means of a hand crank, the bottle neck down gently so that the content flows into the carafe and remains the sediment in the bottle. This decanting method is particularly applied to very old, mature port wine with extremely fine depot.

Aeration of wine ( Decant )

The goal is the contact of the wine with air, so that its flavor can improve. In particular, young, non- drinking mature wines can win taste through this process and provide more enjoyment. The carafe is used usually has a wide base and a large surface area so that the wine, which makes the contact with air. It often pays to Decant red wines from the barrel extension. This decanting of wines without a custodian in a carafe with a wide bottom is called " Decant ", since there is no separation of custody and wine. The slang term " decanter " for the bulbous target vessel is technically wrong for this reason.

Decantation in the chemistry

Decanting is a little complicated purification method with remarkable efficiency and is therefore often used in qualitative inorganic chemical analysis. To completely separate the solids from a suspension joins the decantation of a filtration. The previous decantation accelerates the separation since filter liquids can pass all the more quickly the less solids must be retained, ie they " clog " not so fast.

Can decantation efficiently only after sedimentation; the solid with the greater density must be above the ground settle ( = " sediment ").

In the synthesis may be a heterogeneous catalyst - after a catalyzed reaction - sediment and was separated by decantation of the major part. For complete separation is then usually still filtered.