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MIDDLE EAST UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Engineering
Department of civil engineering

Student: Zaid QasimAlShawabkeh

ID Student: 201920208
Instructor: Dr. AYMEN AWAD
Course: Environmental and Sanitary
Engineering Lab
Experiment: The Determination of
hardness
Experiment No.6
 1. INTRODUC
Water hardness is an expression for the sum of the calcium and magnesium

TION
cation concentration in a water sample. These cations form insoluble salts with a
reagent in soap, decreasing it s cleaning effectiveness. The standard way to
express water hardness is in ppm CaCO3 which has the formula weight of 100.1
g/mole. An excellent way to determine water hardness is to perform a complex
metric titration using a standard ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)
2. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
solution. Due to steric hindrances, EDTA will complex with calcium and
magnesium in a one-to-one molar ratio. The endpoint in this experiment will be
determined using a calmagite indicator. The indicator imparts a red color to the
solution while there are calcium and magnesium ions that have not complexed
with1.EDTA. Once
Burette the endpoint has been reached and there is no more
(25ml)
uncomplexed
2. BuretteCa or Mg, the indicator will give a blue color. This lab will be
Stand
graded based onFlask
3. Conical the accuracy of your individual results. Due to the fact that you
will4.be Pipette
using the EDTA as a primary standard, it is important that you be
extremely careful in your weighing procedure. Any mistakes will carry through
5. Funnel
the entire experiment
6. Beaker (250ml)and greatly affect the accuracy of your results. Careful
titrations will give
7. Sample you high
of water precision.
(testing sample)
3. Procedure 
8. Erichrome Black (Indicator)
9. Buffer solution

4. Calculations 
1. Make a standard solution of EDTA with (0.02) normality.
2. Use the standard EDTA solution to titrate the hard water.
3. Fill the burette (25ml) with EDTA solution using funnel.
4. Add 20ml
Total of waterofsample
hardness to the conical
water sample in termsflask.
of CaCO3
5. AddVolume
2ml ofofbuffer
EDTA ×solution.
N × E . W ×1000
¿
6. Add 2 drops of the
Volume indicator
of sample taken(EBT).
7. Check the color (wine red or dark blue), if wine red start titration.
8. The end point of the test is dark blue color.
Where is:
9. Perform calculations to determine the concentration of calcium and
magnesium ions in the hard water.
- N: Normality of EDTA=0.02
- E.W: Equivalent weight for CaCO3=50

- Note that:
 Standard values of Hardness are:

≥ 50 mg of CaCO3 (Hard water)

≤ 50 mg of CaCO3 (Soft water)

5. Conclusion 

Hardness is the property which makes water to from an insoluble precipitate with
soap and is primarily due to the presence of calcium and magnesium ions. Hard
waters have no known adverse health effects and may be more palatable than soft
waters. Hard water is primarily of concern because it requires more soap for effective
cleaning causes yellowing of fabrics, toughens vegetables cooked in the water and
forms scales in boils, water heaters, pipes and cooking utensils. The hardness of good
quality water should not exceed 250 mg/L may be corrosive to piping depending on
pH, alkalinity and dissolved oxygen.