Distillation

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Distillation is the use of phase transitions to concentrate chemicals from a mixture.

For example, cooling a mixture of ethanol and water to below the freezing point of water but above the freezing point of alcohol would turn some of the water into ice. Separating the solid from the liquid, one ends up with one mixture that is higher in water than the original and another that is higher in ethanol.

Similarly, an oil refinery heats crude oil so that some of the contents evaporate while others stay liquid. Doing this in multiple steps, one can separate it into a number of components such as diesel fuel, petroleum/gasoline or kerosene.

Since yeast can not be used to produce ethanol in concentrations beyond that which kills the yeast, and since such concentrations have significant medical use, a self-sufficient colony would need to distill it.

On Mars a colony would distill the atmosphere into one fraction, a mixture of nitrogen and argon, and another fraction of carbon dioxide. Bothe fractions would be useful.