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Did
you know?
Reverse osmosis is the finest water filtration method known. This process will
allow the removal of particles as small as ions from a solution. It is used
to purify water and remove salts and other impurities in order to improve the
color, taste or properties of the fluid. R.O. uses a membrane that is semi-permeable,
allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting
other ions and contaminants from passing.
This technology uses a process
known as crossflow to allow the r.o. membrane to continually clean itself. This
is the reason of why an r.o. element can last many years before clogging or
need replacement. This
water purification process requires a driving force to push the fluid through
the membrane, and the most common force is household water pressure or pressure
from a booster pump. The higher the pressure, the larger the driving force and
efficiency.
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Sodium / Methane/ Phenol in Drinking Water
Sodium
salts are present to a greater or lesser degree in all natural waters.
Their concentrations vary from a few parts per million in some surface
supplies to several hundred grains per gallon in certain well supplies.
Sodium is extremely soluble and increases its solubility as the temperature
of water rises. Because of this characteristic, sodium salts do not form
scale when water is heated. Likewise, sodium salts do not produce curd
when combined with soap. In fact, ordinary soap is an organic sodium compound.
As such it does not react with the sodium in water.
Soap may be made from a fatty
acid and a strong alkali:
C17H35COOH
+ NaOH --> C17H35COONa + H20
Stearic acid plus sodium
hydroxide reacts to produce sodium stirates plus water
From this, it is evident that
soap is actually a salt formed from an acid and a base.
High concentrations
of sodium, on the other hand, mean high total minerals and tend to increase
the corrosive action of water. In concentrations over 30 to 40 grains
per gallon, sodium salts may give water an unpleasant taste. Further,
sodium ions in large amounts hamper the operation of ion exchange softeners
in the removal of hardness. Where water contains appreciable amounts of
both hardness minerals and sodium, several grains of hardness may continue
to appear in the softened water. This occurs because of the regenerative
action of the sodium ions on the ion exchange material. Sodium salts have
a lesser effect on the resinous exchange materials than on those of the
gel zeolite type.
Reverse
osmosis, distillation, and deionization remove sodium from water.
METHANE
Wells
that contain methane are generally located in areas where gas and oil
wells are common sights. Amounts run from 0.1 to 11.6 cubic feet per 1,000
gallons. This is roughly equivalent to 0.8 to 87 milliliters of methane
per liter of water. Methane is objectionable in drinking water because
of the odor and flammability. When water contains methane gas, it is advisable
to aerate it prior to use for either industrial or household purposes.
This is necessary to avoid the dangers of fire or explosion. The aerator
must be vented to the open air to permit the gas to escape into the atmosphere.
PHENOL
There is a growing
trend by both government and private groups to control pollution of water
due to the discharge of industrial waste materials. One of the offensive
wastes is phenol. Phenol (CsH50H) imparts a medicinal
taste and odor to water when the latter is chlorinated. This objectionable
taste in a chlorinated water occurs in concentrations as low as one part
per billion due to the formation of chlorophenols, which may be removed
by activated carbon filtration.
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