Which Water Purification Process Do You Want To Know About?

There are several different types of water purification process in common use.

To explain water purification in its entirety would take several volumes, but here are some simple explanations of the main ways used today to remove impurities from water.

Filtration is used in many different ways to remove contaminants from water and make it fit for human consumption. The most common filtration process is reverse osmosis.

In reverse osmosis - also known as reversed osmosis or RO - a fine plastic membrane is used to filter water. It can be used to filter very fine particles - as small as 0.001 microns in size - as well as aqueous salts and metal ions.

Cartridge filtration is the most popular form of home water purification process. Fibres in the cartridge do the job of filtering the water. For them to work at their optimum, contamination levels should be less than 100ppm. This is generally perfectly acceptable in a home environment where you would expect the heavy-duty filtering to have been done by your local water company.

There are various methods of chemical water purification and which one is best is dependent upon exactly what contaminants are present in the water. Some examples are chelating agents which can be added to neutralize the negative effects of hardness if the water has too much calcium or magnesium in it. Oxidizing agents can be added to act as a biocide or to neutralize reducing agents. Reducing agents are added to neutralize oxidizing agents like ozone and chlorine. They can also help to prevent damage to purification membranes used in processes like reverse osmosis.

Clarification is another water purification process. It is designed to remove suspended solids. Coagulants are added to the water to reduce the charges of ions. This leads to the ions accumulating as larger particles called flocs. These flocs will then settle to the bottom of settling tanks or are removed through a gravity filter. Clarification doesn't remove particles smaller than 25 microns so it is usually used as the first stage in a multi-stage purification process.

Other types of water purification process include deionisation and softening, disinfection (using chlorine, ozone or UV radiation), distillation, electro dialysis, PH-adjustment, scavenging and biological water purification.

More and more people would rather take matters into their own hands when it comes to safeguarding their health and the health of their families. So, rather than trust entirely to local water companies to provide safe drinking water they are choosing to install some form of water filtration system to complete the water purification process.

Article Source: http://www.articlesfeed.com

Alan Allport has been investigating water purification for many years. To find out more water purification process facts check his Website at www.waterfilterpurifiers.com.

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