December 16, 2009
Drinking Water Treatment Methods
Filters using various filtering technologies like Distillation, Carbon Absorption, Microporous Basic Filtration, Reverse Osmosis and Ultraviolet Radiations are available in the market. What you choose to purchase depends on the results of your water tests and your specific household needs.
Distillation is probably the oldest method of water purification. In this method water is first heated up to boiling point. The water vapors formed rises to a condenser where cooling water lowers the temperature. So the vapor is condensed, collected and stored to give pure water. Most of the contaminants remain behind in the liquid phase vessel.
Distilled water tastes flat because it has lost its dissolved oxygen. The process is not effective against the chemicals which have a boiling point below that of water. Volatile substances such as ammonia are carried over into the condensation chamber. Most distillers are slow and require large amounts of energy and water.
Carbon filters work on the concept that a carbon surface can absorb a lot of contaminants. These carbon layers do not allow impurity to pass through it. They easily remove some of the organic chemicals and pesticide residue from the water. Radon can also be completely removed by using a granular activated carbon. The filters based on this filtration technology are not so costly and provides you highly pure water.
A microporous filtration system has three different layers for filtration solving different purposes. These layers are- depth layer, screen layer and surface layer. Top most layer is depth layer and it is also referred as pre-filter. This layer eliminates 98% of impurities from the water. Next comes surface filter and it eliminates 99.99% of suspended impurities. At the end we have screen filter to remove any remaining dust particle.
Reverse Osmosis is one of the most popular techniques of cleaning water. These filters use a semi permeable membrane to clean water. The porous size of this membrane is so small that it does not allow any of the contaminant or microorganism to pass through it.
When the water goes for filtration, pressure is applied on water first to stop and then to reverse the osmotic pressure. As a result of this pressure you get highly purified water. It wastes a lot of water in purification process and it is one of its biggest disadvantages.
Ultraviolet radiations are very effective in killing germs and hence makes water germ free. Mercury low pressure lamp generating 254 nm UV light is an efficient way of doing this. All the germs and microorganisms are either killed or inactivated by this process, giving you clean and clear water.
Scott Rodgers is a noted writer who has been providing great guidance on plumbing works all across the nation. His splendid knowledge has, in fact, sparked significant rise in revenue for talented plumbers across the nation, from Miami Plumbers to Seminole Plumbers .
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