Water Purification Systems
Water Purification Systems
Did you know that you can live in the middle of the desert without eating any food for weeks? However, you can die from thirst in just a few hours if you are in the same situation. Water is that important in our body.
But if you are stuck in the desert you can’t just drink any water you find if health safety is your next priority. So for a win-win situation, you need to always bring a water purification system with you.
Water purification is the treatment of raw water or water taken from the environment to produce water that is safe enough to for human consumption, for washing or for industrial purposes.
The following are the substances that are supposed to be eliminated with the help of water purification:
Crypstoporidium, Giardia and other parasites, algae, bacteria, fungi, viruses, toxic elements such as Copper, Lead, and Mercury and other artificial contaminants are mostly what water purification systems should get rid off or reduce at least. After the stages of water purification, some disinfectant is left on the water to avoid recontamination when water is distributed.
If you have acquired water from any unknown source, boiling or using a crude charcoal filter as water purification means won’t guarantee the safety of that water.
The most common water purification system is what’s known as municipal water treatment and is used to purify water for community consumption.
Municipal water purification system has three stages – primary, secondary, and tertiary.
On the primary stage of water purification, water to be purified is collected through pumping it from its source. That water will then be directed to containers that are constructed to avoid accidental contamination, thus the water purification practices are started. It is also on this stage of water purification that screening starts. Large debris such as sticks and stones and leaves are removed. Then, water for purification will be stored in reservoirs. Next is the pre-conditioning of the water before the second stage of water purification.
The secondary stage of water purification consists of various procedures in removing finer solids, microbes and dissolved organic and inorganic materials. The water purification processes on this stage depend on the quality of water required, the cost of the water purification procedures and the quality of water to be purified. The usual processes included on the secondary treatment for water purification include:
- pH adjustment as a water purification method that balances the acidity or alkalinity of the water through the addition of either soda ash or lime.
- Coagulation and flocculation as water purification tandems that use chemicals to make suspended particles stick together and stick with other granules to make water purification easy.
- Sedimentation is that water purification process that follows flocculation. This is where the floc settles in a sedimentation or settling basin.
- Filtration follows after the water purification method sedimentation. When the floc settles and gets separated, the final water purification process in eliminating unwanted particles is filtration. Usually, a rapid sand filter is used in this water purification method. When there’s enough land and space, biological processes are done to treat the water in a manner called slow sand filtration. More modern types of water purification methods in the substage of filtration make use of ultrafiltration membranes. Here, a porous polymer film is used to filter the water without coagulants.
The tertiary treatment water purification procedures include the disinfection processes. Disinfection is important to get rid of the bad microorganisms which were not totally filtered out. The common disinfectants that aid in water purification include chlorine (the most common), chlorine dioxide, chloramines, ozone and UV radiation. Other water purification treatment options are fluoridation, which provides anti-tooth decay action; fluoride removal to reduce excess levels of fluoride; water conditioning to reduce hard water’s effects; plumbo-solvency reduction for decreasing the capability of naturally acidic water to destroy lead pipes, and radium removal.
Other water purification methods are available to local private water supplies. In other countries, these are more popular than the abovementioned municipal water purification treatment.
Boiling is one popular water purification system that is not that efficient since it does not leave any disinfectant that will avoid recontamination of water.
Carbon filtering is a water purification technique that uses activated carbon.
Distillation is the water purification method that produces 99.9% of pure water. But due to not having any post-purification disinfection measures, it still can be lesser safe as a water purification system.
Reverse osmosis is the mechanical means of forcing pure water to get through a semi-permeable membrane. It is said to be the most meticulous large scale water purification system.
Other technological water purification systems include electrodeionization and ion exchange.