Why separation dominates plant capital and energy, absorption and stripping, extraction basics, and how the mixture itself — not a fixed rule — decides which separation method actually fits.
A reactor almost never produces a pure, sellable product directly, and turning its effluent into on-spec product is usually the most capital- and energy-intensive part of the entire plant. This module frames separation process selection as a question the mixture answers for you, then works through absorption, stripping, and extraction as the primary alternatives to distillation whenever relative volatility isn't the strongest property difference available.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a stripper and an absorber are, mechanically, the same equipment run in opposite directions — groundwork Module 8's distillation module builds on directly, going deep on the one separation method used more than any other in the process industries.