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WATER TREATMENT
HARD WATER :
Hard water does not produce good lather or form with soap and consume more
soap. The hard water contains bicarbonates chloride and sulphates of calcium &
magnesium.
The hard water when treated with soap i.e. sodium stearate, then no lather will
be formed because sodium stearate of soap reacts with salts of calcium and
magnesium giving insoluble Ca & Mg stearate.
SOFT WATER :
The soft water when treated with soap produces more lather and consume less
soap and this is due to the absence of dissolved salts of Ca & Mg in water.
TYPES OF HARDNESS :
There are two types of hardness.
(1) TEMPORARY HARDNESS
It is due to the presence of only bicarbonate of calcium & magnesium. This
type of hardness can be removed by boiling the water.
Boil
Ca(HCO3 )2 CaCO3 CO 2 H 2O
insoluble
Boil
Mg(HCO3 ) 2 MgCO3 CO 2 H 2O
insoluble
Temporary Hardness :
Calcium bicarbonate Ca(HCO ) Mol.wt 162gm/ mole
32
Magnesium bicarbonate Mg(HCO ) Mol.wt 146gm/ mole
32
Permanent Hardness :
Calcium chloride CaCl2 Mol.wt 111gm / mole
Magnesium chloride MgCl2 Mol.wt 95 gm / mole
Calcium sulphate CaSO4 Mol.wt 136 gm / mole
Magnesium sulphate MgSO4 Mol.wt 120 gm / mole
UNITS OF HARDNESS :
(1) DEGREE CLARK
If in a 7.0 104 parts (by weight) of water contains one part (by weight) of
CaCO3 or equivalent salts of Ca & Mg, then the hardness is said to be one degree
clark.
(3) PPM
If in a 106 parts (by weight) of water contain one part (by weight) of CaCO3 or
equivalent salts of Ca & Mg, then the hardness is said to be one ppm.
Relationship
0.070 degree clark = 0.10 degree french = 1 ppm
W Mol.wt.of CaCO3
Hardness of soluble salt equivalent to CaCO3
Mol.wt.of so lub le salt
W 100
Mol. wt.of so lub le salt
Note : The hardness is measured in terms of CaCO3 because CaCO3 is less soluble in
water and as the molecular weight of calcium carbonate is 100 gm/mole, it
makes easy in calculation.
Example 1
A water sample contains following dissolved salt.
Ca(HCO ) 8.1mg /lit.
32
Mg(HCO ) 29.2 mg /lit.
32
CaCl2 11.1mg / lit.
MgSO4 6.0 mg / lit.
W 100
Hardness of soluble salt equivalent to CaCO3
Mol.wt.of so lub le salt
8.1 100
Hardness due to Ca(HCO ) 5 mg / lit
32 162
29.2 100
Hardness due to Mg(HCO ) 20 mg / lit
32 146
11.1 100
Hardness due to CaCl2 10 mg /lit
111
6.0 100
Hardness due to MgSO 5 mg / lit
4 120
Temparary Hardness Hardness due Hardness due
to Ca(HCO3 )2 to Mg(HCO3 )2
= 5 + 20
= 25 mg / lit.
To remove hardness from water, three method are used on a large scale.
(1) Soda-lime method
(2) Permutit process
(3) Ion-exchange process
PERMUTIT PROCESS
Permutit is also known as Zeolite. They are capable of exchanging ions
reversibly. The chemical formula for permutit is Na2O, Al2O3SiO2 6H2O. In short it is
written as Na2-P or Na2-Z.
ION-EXCHANGE PROCESS :
This is most modern method for softening hard water. By using this method
almost all salts can be removed completely from hard water and the water obtained is
as good as distill water.
In this process two types of resins are used i.e. cation exchange resin & anion
exchange resin, cation exchange resin contains (-COOH, -SO3H) function groups and
are capable of exchanging their H+ ions with cations. While anion exchange resin
contains (-NH2, -OH) functional group and are capable of exchanging OH- ions with
anions.
The hard water is first allowed to pass through a column containing cation
exchange resins. Which remove all the cations like Ca+2, Mg+2 etc. and release H+
ions. Reaction in first column takes place as under.
R-H2 + CaCl2 Ca-R + 2HCl
R-H2 + MgCl2 Mg-R -- 2HCl
R-H2 + CaSO4 Ca-R -- H2SO4
R-H2 + MgSO4 Mg-R + H2SO4
The anions like chloride & sulphates are converted into acid like HCl &
H2SO4. Which is passed through another column containing anion exchanger i.e. R-
(OH)2 resin where the following reaction takes place.
R-(OH)2 + 2HCl R-Cl2 + 2H2O
R-(OH)2 + H2SO4 R-SO4 + 2H2O
Water thus obtained is free from all cations and anions & is called soft water
or distill water.
When both resins get fully exhausted then they are regenerated. The acidic
resin is regenerated by passing dilute acid solution (in first column). While basic resin
is regenerated by passing dilute NaOH solution (in second column), followed by
washing with water.
Ca-R + 2HCl R-H2 + CaCl2 in first
Mg-R + 2HCl R-H2 + MgCl2 column
R-Cl2 + 2NaOH R-(OH)2 + 2NaCl in second
R-SO4 + 2NaOH R-(OH)2 + 2Na2SO4 column
(2) Due to evaporation, the concentration of soluble matter is increased & finally
precipitated.
(3) Colloidal matter such as silica etc., due to high temperature and concentration are
precipitated in to boiler.
(A) PRIMING
When a boiler is producing steam rapidly some particles of the water liquid
carried along with the steam. This process of Wet Steam formation is called
priming.
Causes of Priming
(1) the presence of large amount of dissolved solids
(2) high steam velocities.
(3) sudden boiling
(4) improper boiler design
(5) sudden increase in steam-production rate.
Disadvantages of Priming
(1) Dissolved salt in boiler water are carried out by the wet steam to turbine blades
which reduces their efficiency.
(2) Dissolved salts may enter the parts of other machinery may decrease the life of
the machinery.
(3) Actual height of the water column cannot be judge properly, Thereby making
the maintenance of the boiler pressure becomes difficult.
Prevention of Priming
(1) By improving boiler design.
(2) By fitting mechanical steam purifiers.
(3) By maintaining low water level in boilers
(4) By using soft water.
(5) By decreasing the amount of dissolved salts.
Prevention of Foaming :
(1) By the addition of anti-foaming chemicals like castor oil, Gallic acid,
tennic acid etc.
(2) removing oil from boiler water by adding compounds like sodium
aluminate.
Water used for domestic purposes must be free from germs & bacteria. It
should be free from objectionable dissolved gases like H2S & dissolved salts like, lead
arsenic & manganese salts. Generally for domestic supply, surface water is used & it
is contaminated with large number of impurities such as, organic matter, suspended
impurities etc. therefore to make it safe for drinking purpose, following treatment
processes are employed.
(1) Screening :
Screening is the process of removing floating materials from water. Raw water
is allowed to pass through a screen having a large number of perforations which
removes the large & small floating matter.
(2) Sedimentation :
It is the process of removing insoluble impurities by allowing the water to stay
undisturbed for sometime. Water is allowed to settle in big tanks or reservoirs for a
number of hours. The suspended materials, other than living organisms which float
due to the gases they produce, settle down at the bottom due to the force of gravity.
The process of sedimentation is generally carried out in continuous flow type tanks in
which water flows continuously in a horizontal, radial or vertical directions at uniform
rate.
Horizontal flow tank consists of a rectangular tank with channel type inlet &
outlet extending throughout the width of the tank. It is provided with buffle walls to
(3) Co-agulation :
Co-agulation is the process of removing fine sized particles from water with
addition of certain chemicals known as co-agulants.
Actually the fine sized particles present in water either do not settle down at
all or take a long time. In order to facilitate quick settling of these particles, some
chemical agents known as co-agulants are used. The commonly used co-agulants are
the salts of iron & aluminium. e.g. alum [ K2SO4 Al2(SO4)3 24H2O ], aluminium
sulphate Al2(SO4)3 18H2O, ferrous sulphate FeSO4 7H2O, ferric chloride FeCl3 etc.
These salts react with carbonate & bicarbonate radicals present in water & form co-
agulable precipitates (flocks) of hydroxide of these metals. The precipitated
hydroxide absorbs the suspended impurities, bacteria & other micro-organisms &
causes them to settle down.
(4) Filtration :
When sludge etc. after co-agulation has settled down, filteration is carried out
by means of filters. Filtration is the process of removing insoluble, colloidal &
bacterial impurities from water by means of filters. The filters used in water filtration
consist of several layers of sand particles of different size.
Gravity send filter consists of a large rectangular take made of concrete. The
filtering medium in it consists of 3 feet of find send below which 1 feet thick coarser
sand which inturn is supported by 8 inches thick bed of graded gravel. Below the
graded gravels are drain through which filtered water goes out.