Gold parting in 1860's Australia. It is able to refine gold up to 99.5% purity. The process involves blowing a stream of chlorine gas over and through a crucible filled with molten impure gold. Impurities in the gold form chlorides before the gold does and these insoluble salts are removed from the melt by skimming the surface. Invented by Emil Wohlwill in 1874, this produces the highest purity gold (99.999%). It is an electrolytic process using pure gold for the cathode (or titanium as a starter cathode) and chloroauric acid (gold chloride-hydrochloric acid) as the electrolyte; this is made by dissolving gold
Industrial separation processes which restricts the movement of one compound but not of the other one (semipermeable membranes) is less common; external fields are used just in special applications. Industrial separation processes Industrial separation processes are technical procedures which are used in industry to separate a product from impurities or other products. The original mixture may either be a natural resource (like ore, oil or sugar cane) or the product of a chemical reaction (like a drug or an organic solvent). Separation processes are of great economic importance as they are accounting for 40 – 90% of capital and operating costs in industry.