ID 5011

A Hybrid Course on Water Quality

– An Approach to People’s Water Data

Lecture 3

Water Quality Concepts

Prof. Ligy Philip
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Madras, Chennai, India
E-mail:ligy@iitm.ac.in

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 Water Quality
• An understanding of the quality of water is essential in the
design and operation of collection, treatment and reuse
facilities, and in the engineering management of
environmental quality
• To assess the suitability of water for various beneficial uses
• The characteristics can be basically divided into three
categories;

 Physical parameters
 Chemical parameters
 Biological parameters
 Physical characteristics
• It involves whatever we can physically feel
• The parameters can be classified into

 Colour
 Taste and Odour
 Turbidity
 Solids
 Conductivity
 Temperature
 pH
 Colour
• Colour is caused in water or wastewater due to the presence
of dissolved or colloidal particles
• Colour can be divided into two categories:
True colour
Apparent colour
• True colour is caused by the dissolved solids
• Apparent color can be removed by removing the colloidal
particles
• Colour in water is because when water comes in contact with
various chemicals or biological components, the coloring
material may be leaching from those substances.
 Impacts of Colour
• Water is not esthetically acceptable (We have to provide
potable and palatable water)
• Risk of consuming unsafe clear water than coloured safe water
• Highly coloured water is not suitable for various beneficial
uses like laundering, dyeing, dairy production, beverages
etc..
• True Colour-Unsafe;
• If the colour is due to organic compounds, exert chlorine demand
• Organochlorine compounds generation during chlorination
• They may cause, taste and odour
 Colour contd…
• The colour scale usually used is and colour standard usually
used is platinum scale and chloroplatinate, respectively
• Dilute your sample and compare the colour with the standard
chloroplatinate solution and the dilution you have to continue
till your standard colour and the sample colour matches.
• From the dilution number, the true color unit can be found
out.
• If the colour is entirely different from the colour which is given
by this chloroplatinate then use spectrophotometric method
for determination
 Taste and Odour
• The intensity of the taste and odour will be varying from person
to person, so it is not a true measurement
• The odour is usually represented as threshold odour number,
and this will be again varying from person to person depending
upon their sensitivity to the odourous compound
• Take the odour of sample and dilute it till you don’t get any
odour
• Fresh sewage has no odour
• Clean water do not have any taste or odour
• Odour appears when biodegradation starts, presence of gases,
organic/inorganic materials
 Measurement of Odour
• If we have A ml of odourous sample and we are diluting it with and total with
B ml of odourless water (or A plus B is equal) to 200 ml
• Example if you take A as 1 ml you add it to 199 ml of dilution - diluted water
or distilled water then smell the sample and find out whether any smell is
coming
• Another way is to start from the higher level. Take 50 ml of your sample and
add 150 ml of the dilution water then you can find out whether the odour is
coming
• So the odour number at that case is A equal to 50 ml and B equal to 150 ml
so your threshold odour number will be equal to A plus B divided by A so this
is 200 divided by 50 equal to 4
• As the volume of air decreases your threshold odour number will be
increasing. That means you have to dilute it more times to get odour free
sample
• For drinking purpose, it is recommended that the threshold odour number
should not be more than 3
• Supplying water with more than 3 threshold odour number will results in
objection from the people as they could recognize the odour very easily
 Impacts of Taste and Odour

• Aesthetically displeasing
• Chances of using clear contaminated water …
• Odour producing organic compounds can cause all the
problems similar to colour producing organic compounds
 Turbidity
• Turbidity is a direct qualitative measurement of water/wastewater
• It is caused basically due to colloidal particles
• The particles present in the water or the wastewater will not allow
the passage of light completely
• By measuring the scattered light through that water sample we can
find out the turbidity
• Turbid waters are not pleasing. So it is essential to remove the
turbidity
• The turbid particles will affect the efficiency of disinfection because
the colloidal particles present in that drinking water will be acting as
a shelter for the microorganisms so it will not be getting exposed to
the chemical dose
• The particles can also act as adsorbents for many dissolved chemicals
and that will be harmful to us
• Turbidity water in oxidation ponds of wastewater treatment plants
restricts the passage of light and will affects the aquatic system
 Methods to Measure Turbidity
 Jackson turbidity meter - SiO2 ; unit is JTU
 Nephlometric turbidity meter- Formazine; unit
is NTU
• Jackson turbidity meter consists of a graduated cylinder and a
standard candle
• The standard candle was put in a black metallic shaped
cylinder so that the light can be visible only from the top of
the arrangement
• To measure the turbidity of a particular water sample, pour
the particular water sample in the graduated cylinder which
is placed above the candle and see the candle light through
the water and pour the water until the candle light is not
seen. That mark will give you the turbidity Picture Source:
• So depending upon the water level which can completely water.mecc.edu
obstruct this light coming from the candle gives the turbidity.
• In Jackson’s turbidity meter; 1 Jackson’s turbidity unit is
equivalent to the turbidity coarse by 1 mg per liter of silica
oxide (SiO2)
 Methods Contd…
• But as we know it is very difficult to measure because we have to have the standard and
carrying this instrument is very difficult
• Nephlometric turbidity meter which works on the lights scattering principle is most
popular method
• In this, the light coming from a particular source is getting scattered by the turbid particle
present in the sample which is kept in the direction of light and observes at 90 degree
angle
• The amount of light that has got scattered determined and it gives the turbidity of that
particular water sample
• The turbidity is expressed as NTU that means Nephlometric Turbidity Unit
• 1 NTU is equivalent to 1 mg per liter of formazine
• The turbidity generated by this formazine is much more stable compared to this silica
oxide that’s why silica oxide is replaced by formazine
• Since formazine is used as the standard, the turbidity unit is sometimes called as FTU also
• Turbidity for drinking water should be less than 1 NTU as per EPA
 Solids
• Water and Wastewater contains a variety of solid particles
varying from rags to colloidal particles
• Solids can be classified into various categories depending
upon the size of the particles
• The particle size will be varying from nanometers to few
micrometers or millimeters
• Dissolved solids are solids in which the particle size are
very small and are completely dissolved in the solution
• Particle size is in between 0.001 µm to 1 µm are termed as
colloidal solids
Classification of Solids
and Analyses
 Conductivity
• The electrical conductivity (EC) of water is the ability of
water to conduct electric current
• The electric current is transported by the ions in the
solution. Hence the EC increases as the concentration of
ions increases
• In effect, the measured EC is used as a surrogate measure of
total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration
• The salinity of the treated wastewater used for irrigation is
estimated by measuring its EC
• SI Unit of EC is millisiemens per meter (mS/m)
• TDS of water based on the measured EC is
TDS (mg/L) = (0.55-0.70) x EC (dS/m or mmho/cm)
Not to be used for WW. Why?
• The conductivity of the wastewater will not give measure of
the total dissolved solids properly because most of the solids
are organic in nature so mostly it will not be dissociating.
Hence the EC of this sample is an underestimated value
• Another example is take distilled water and put glucose into
that solution, the TDS present in the system will be very
high. But EC of that water shows nil value, that doesn’t
mean that the system is not having any dissolved solids.
• But if one put 1 gram of sodium chloride in the same water
instead of glucose, the EC will be increasing significantly
• Hence, depending up on the nature of the solids the
conductivity will be varying.
• In order to measure EC, one must need to know about the
type of solids present in the system
 Temperature
• The temperature of wastewater is an important parameter as
it affects the chemical reaction and reaction rates, aquatic life
and the suitability of water for beneficial uses.
• The temperature of wastewater should be higher than the
ambient temperature
• Normally it will be high as the specific heat capacity of water
is higher than that of air. But the air temperature will be
higher at hottest summer months
• Moreover, the mean annual temperature of wastewater will
vary depending on the geographic location
• Oxygen solubility decreases with increase in temperature
• Microbial activity is directly proportional to the temperature
of wastewater
 pH
• The hydrogen ion concentration is an important quality parameter of
both natural waters and wastewaters
• The usual means of expressing the hydrogen- ion concentration is as pH
• Hence, pH is defined as the negative log of hydrogen ion activity
pH = -log10 [H+]
• This is same as the concentration in dilute solutions and in concentrated
solution, the concentration and activity will be different
[H+][OH-] = Kw
Kw is the Ionization constant or ion-product of water and is approximately
equal to 1 x 10-14 at a temperature of 25°C

Applying the value to the equation with pOH as negative log of hydroxyl
ion concentration,
pH + pOH = 14
 Acidity and Alkalinity
Alkalinity Acidity
Acid neutralizing capacity of water Base neutralizing capacity of water

Presence of strong base and a weak It’s a solution containing strong acid
acid or a salt of a weak acid and weak acid or salt of weak acid
Eg: NaOH + H2CO3 or NaOH + Na2CO3 (because once it give off H+ it will act
as conjugate base.
NaOH will neutralize the acid Also in any natural system, the major
also Na2CO3 → NaHCO3 → H2CO3 component that provide acidity and
alkalinity is H2CO3 (Carbonic acid)
H2CO3 → HCO3- → CO32-
NB: The same water can have both acidity and alkalinity. It
doesn’t depend only on pH but also influenced by the
concentration of various system components
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 Different types of Alkalinity
• Caustic Alkalinity: Presence of some strong base. It can be
defined as the acid required to bring down the pH to the
equivalence point of carbonate system (About pH 11.2)
• System Equivalence point: Add salt to the system and when it
attains equilibrium, the pH is called Equivalence point
• Phenolphthalein Alkalinity: It’s the acid needed to bring the
pH to bicarbonate equivalence point (About pH 8.3)
• Methyl orange Alkalinity: It’s the acid needed to bring the pH
to H2CO3 Equivalence point (About pH 4.2)
• Eq: for equivalence point when (CT = 0.1 M) H2CO3 = 4.2;
NaHCO3 = 8.3, Na2CO3 = 11.2

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Forms of Acidity and Alkalinity in Carbonic acid system

NB: pH change will be based on acidity, alkalinity and

buffering capacity of the system
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 Oxidation Reduction Potential
• Oxidation
• Reduction
• Oxidation –Reduction Reaction/ Redox Reactions: Positive ion
accept electrons and negative ion release electrons, thus
resulting in the change in oxidation state of the species.
• Electrochemical Cell:
• Electrolyte : any solution (solute+ solvent) that can conduct
electricity.
• Electrode : Anode and Cathode
• Anode : Electrode at which Negative ion releases electrons i.e
oxidised
• Cathode: Electrode a t which Positive ion accepts electrons, i.e.,
reduced
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 Standard Electrode Potentials
• Used to compute the cell potential of many different half-cells against an
arbitrarily selected reference half-cell.
• Reference cell : Hydrogen electrode which is assigned a potential of 0 volts
under standard conditions :
2H+(aq) + 2e- H2(g) (Eo= 0 V)
• Condition of Standard Half reference cell

1. The standard hydrogen half-cell is assigned a reduction potential of 0.0 V

2. All species in standard half-cells are at standard state
3. The most negative reduction potential has the least tendency to exist in
the reduced state. For example,
Li+ +e- Li E0= -3.03 V
4. The higher the potential (as expressed in volts), the greater the affinity of
the acceptor for the electron
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 Measuring Redox Potential
Reference electrodes- the potential of the electrode remain constant to the change in the solution during
electrochemical reaction
E.g. Saturated Calomel Electrode
Hg2Cl2 +2e-  2Hg +2 Cl- Eo = 0.242 V
Silver- Silver chloride electrode in 1M or 4M KCl
AgCl+ e-  Ag +Cl- (1M KCl ) Eo =+0.235V
AgCl+ e-  Ag +Cl- (4M KCl) Eo = +0.199 V
Indicator electrode- the potential of the electrode changes w.r.t the change in the solution during
electrochemical reaction
pH electrode: Glass electrode: silver-silver chloride reference electrode and 0.1M HCl. Bottom thin walled
bulb, Plot of Ecell Vs pH straight line with a slope of 0.059 V/pH unit at 25 oC . Glass Membrane are also
being used.
Eg: Platinum (Pt) Glass Electrode used of pH determination, Ion selective electrodes
 Reading Materials
• https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/352532/97
89240045064-eng.pdf?sequence=1
• https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so
urce=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwijzKS09PCDAxUZQ2cHHZB
rBGsQFnoECBQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fegyankosh.a
c.in%2Fbitstream%2F123456789%2F45408%2F1%2FUnit
-6.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2FUd_hkfbEs-
X3jylhcsGr&opi=89978449