An Overview of the Water Purification Process


by Laurel Tevolitz - Date: 2008-05-26 - Word Count: 685 Share This!

Statistics underline the importance of the water purification process. Our present-day activities allow 75,000 different chemicals to enter the environment. Still, only 90 of those 75,000 chemicals can be identified in water sources, using tests available to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees in the United States.

Were it not for society's ability to make use of the water purification, homeowners, medical facilities, drug-making plants and other industrial facilities would all need to accept the presence of those 75,000 chemicals. Fortunately there are points of use devices for the purification process of water. Homeowners and business people study the methods employed in such devices.

At the present time, there are seven different methods available to homeowners or business owners who plan to make use of a process that purifies water. Each method represents a recognized technique, a technique that facilitates the purification. Yet not every one of those techniques manages to filter out all of the possible contaminants in any water source.

This article looks closely at details about each known water purification process. It hopes to help homeowners and business owners compare those various processes, and to insure the presence of safe and pleasant tasting water whenever residents or workers choose to turn on the tap.

In order for water qualify as "safe" drinking water, the following must be true. That water must be free of both unwanted chemicals and also any of the various microbiological species that have been found in unfiltered water. Water that has been exposed to UV light lacks such organisms. The UV light destroys the DNA in those organisms and kills them.

UV light provides society with a cheap way to rid water of harmful microbes. Yet UV light allows chemicals to stay in the water. Filtration can serve as a low-cost way to remove some chemicals from water. Filtration devices do not rely on an input of power. The force of gravity pulls the water over the material that has the ability to filter-out impurities.

Homeowners sometimes need to remove calcium and magnesium from the water that is piped into the home. Those minerals cause water to become "hard." Hard water puts a scale on the water pipes and it reduces the ability of a soap user to form suds with that soap. By using a water softener, a homeowner can replace the calcium and magnesium ions with salt ions.

None of the above-mentioned processes allows a homeowner or business owner to remove all the unwanted chemicals from the available water source. For that reason, a number of homeowners and business owners have investigated the method by which reverse osmosis can serve as a process of purifying water.

During the reverse osmosis process, a membrane with great chemical resistance and superior mechanical strength removes unwanted chemicals from the water. In addition to insuring removal of all neutral or charged organic compounds, reverse osmosis also does away with microbiological species in the water. In addition, it takes out any dissolved calcium or magnesium.

In the late 20th Century India began to use a different purification process of water, one that employed ultrafiltration. In 1979 water experts went into India to distribute filters with cellulose acetate membranes. In 1988 they returned, showing Indian officials the improved membrane, one made with Polysulfone.

Meanwhile, homeowners in the U.S. began to purchase a new tool, a tool to be used in the purification process of water. Homeowners began to buy deionization systems. In such a system, water is pumped across a membrane with small holes. Dissolved salts can not penetrate those holes.

Eventually, water purification experts introduced society to activated carbon filters. Such filters have a large surface area, a surface that can attract and hold certain chemicals. Now current knowledge of this process of purification allows homeowners and business owners to enjoy clean, pure, great-tasting water.

Now growing numbers of homeowners and business owners depend on a water purification process that includes both carbon filters with ion exchange, in addition to micron filtration. They know that such a system is sure to bring the safest possible water to the opening on each water tap.


Related Tags: water purification, water purification process, purification process of water

Laurel Tevolitz is a dedicated researcher of critical issues that affect health and well-being. Visit her water purification blog now at http://www.safewaterpurifier.com
to discover which water purification system she recommends after extensive research.

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