A condenser is a piece of equipment that separates two components. A mixed component gas phase enters the condenser where the temperature of the gas is lowered and/or the pressure of the gas is raised. This causes the less volatile component to change to a liquid phase. The liquid phase and the gas phase are then removed from the condenser.
A basic schematic of a condenser is shown below:
One mixed component gas phase feed stream enters the mixer, where the gas is cooled
or compressed. There is usually two streams leaving the condenser containing the
resulting relatively pure gas and liquid streams.