Water Treatment Everything You Need to Know About Water Purification

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Water sourced from lakes, rivers and oceans contain multiple chemical and physical contaminants which make it unsuitable for domestic purposes such as drinking as well as for industrial purposes. Water is a crucial element for both these areas and the only way to utilize this natural resource is by purifying it via different treatment processes.

Water is a natural resource that is freely found on the earth’s surface and one that is vital for all human beings. Be it for domestic usage i.e. cooking or drinking or for industrial operations, water is essential and cannot be replaced with any other element. Typical sources of fresh water include rivers, lakes and oceans but along with the water one also receives many major and minor contaminants which first have to eliminated so that it can be safe to use for domestic and industrial purposes. This is where governments, local municipalities and even large-scale companies come in. Concepts such as ‘water purification’ and ‘water treatment’ are adopted and implemented by these institutes to meet their respective water requirements.

Decoding the water treatment concept

What is water treatment? In simple words, water undergoes a procedure in which contaminants are eliminated or reduced for different purposes such as drinking, cooking, industrial operations, and agriculture.

Domestic Use

Water to be used for the purpose of drinking or cooking is treated in roughly five stages: Screening, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. The screening process is the first step in the water treatment process wherein large impurities such as twigs, fishes, leaves, etc are flushed out from the water via screens such as coarse screens or fine screens. This process is simple yet effective as it helps to protect the treatment plant from damage.

The coagulation and sedimentation process help to further remove impurities (fine particles) from the water. In this process, coagulants such as aluminum sulfate and ferric chloride are added to the water to form flocs, attracting dirt particles which eventually settles down at the bottom of the unit (sediment) owing to its heavy weight. This also eliminates bacteria and viruses present in the water.

The next step is the filtration process which as the name suggests helps to filter out the sediment (solid particles) in the unit from the clean water via different filters such as sand and gravel beds. Once this is complete, the final stage of disinfection is carried out. Chemicals such as chlorine or chlorine dioxide are then added to the water to remove any microorganisms or bacteria present in the water following which it is stored safely in tanks and then supplied for domestic use via pipelines.

Industrial Use

The industrial water treatment process is similar to the way water is treated for domestic use. One such example is the boiler feed water treatment system which is used to treat water before it enters industrial boilers to generate steam. The system safeguards the boiler from scaling and corrosion which in turn proves beneficial for the overall functioning of the facility where boilers are used. Just like in the case of domestic usage, water is first screened from the source (fresh water sources, local municipalities) to remove large impurities and then moves to the second step of coagulation wherein chemicals are added to the water followed by the filtration process in which the remaining impurities are eliminated.

Next the water is softened with the help of an ion-exchange resin which is used to remove the positively charged ions such as magnesium and calcium found in the hard water to make it soft. This is also used for domestic water purposes. Post this is the dealkalization method. In this, the alkalinity of the water is reduced by removing carbonate ions and exchanging them for chloride ions. This is crucial as it can lead to corrosion of the boiler equipment.

The reverse osmosis (RO) process is also used in the boiler feed water treatment system process as well as for domestic usage. Applying pressure to the water and passing it through semi-permeable membranes helps to separate the water molecules from other substances such as bacteria, salts, organics, and silica. Thus, leaving purified water.

Towards the end, the degasification process is carried out wherein the dissolved gases present in the water are removed. Once, all these steps are complete, the clean water is fed into the boilers for generating steam.

Water treatment is an important industry and one that needs to be appreciated especially in today’s time where fresh clean water is becoming a scarce resource. It is a popular belief that the next world war will be fought over water and if this is the case, we must not only conserve water properly but also treat it effectively.

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