Dear experts, how are fractional distillation towers and distillation towers defined? What’s the difference? Are all columns for gas phases distillation columns?

You can look up the definition on Baidu, but it’s likely that the explanations there aren’t very clear. I seem to have looked it up as well; however, there’s a major issue in your question. What’s certain is that both distillation and fractional distillation are methods used for separating liquid mixtures. Even air separation involves liquid mixtures – it’s the most fundamental mistake. As for the difference, I understand that the concept of distillation is broader than that of rectification; distillation requires less strict purity standards for the product, while rectification involves multiple distillation steps to achieve a much higher level of product purity, and a key feature of it is the use of high-purity product in the reflux process... I think there’s no need to worry about such differences once one has graduated. It’s not because of carelessness; it’s simply that the distinction between the two isn’t very clear. Even during school, few people dared to explain it clearly. Some were willing to try, but no one could confidently state the differences on their own

Fractionation: The process of heating a liquid mixture, during which the light components vaporize and are then led away for condensation, thereby allowing the separation of the light and heavy components in the mixture. Distillation: A mass transfer process in which a liquid mixture is subjected to repeated partial condensation and partial vaporization to achieve a thorough separation of the components in the feed liquid. We often refer to the tower section above the feed with reflux as the distillation section.

I’ve also looked up a lot of information, but there isn’t a clear boundary; what is mentioned most often is that it should be determined based on the purity of the product