VIJAYARATNA JUNIOR COLLEGE

Nallakunta, Hyderabad, Ph: 27621818, 27631818

PROJECT :- 1

Title: Study of the methods of purification of water

Objectives:
1. To study the level of purity achieved ‘by using different purification methods.
2. To study the advantages and disadvantages of using different purification methods.
3. To know the specific uses of pure water.

Background:

Water is essential for all living beings. As such the water should be available in pure form. Otherwise, the
impure water causes many disadvantages like spreading of water borne, diseases, water infections etc., The
water is available for us by so many sources like rivers, wells, seas, rains etc., Depending on the nature of
source and degree of contamination, water is purified by the following methods.

Water purification methods:

There are various methods of water purification. Some of them are

1. Storage 2. Coagulation and Sedimentation 3. Filtration

4. Disinfection (using chlorine gas and sodium hypochlorite and ozone)
5. Boiling 6. Distillation 7. Carbon filtering 8. Reverse osmosis
9. Ion exchange and 10. Electrode ionization.

Let us discuss the distillation method of purification of water, which gives 99.9% pure water.

Distillation:
The process of distillation involves the evaporation and condensation, which helps to purify water. The key
terms are evaporation and condensation. Evaporation is defined as the process through which a liquid
becomes a vapour. Condensation is the process through which a vapour becomes .a liquid, and is the opposite
of evaporation. In the case of water, the main mechanisms for evaporation and condensation are heating and
cooling, respectively which is known as distillation. In this process of distillation, there are different types like
steam distillation, fractional distillation etc., In distillation process. the impure water is taken and it is
subjected to evaporation. The water vapour or steam is collected in a container and is cooled to room
temperature (condensation). The steam which is free from almost all the impurities, upon cooling gives pure
water. Distillation process is helpful to remove impurities like micro biological organisms, organic and
Inorganic impurities, heavy metals and radio active substances. The following table gives the comparison of
various water purification methods.

Table P 1.1: Water purification process performance comparison

Carbon Ceramic Steam
Type of Carbon Ceramic Reverse
filter with filter with distillation
Impurity Filter Filter Osmosis
silver carbon with carbon
Microbiological NO PARTIAL YES YES NO YES
Organics YES YES NO YES YES YES
Heavy metals NO NO NO NO PARTIAL YES
Radio active
NO NO NO NO PARTIAL YES
substances
Inorganics NO NO NO NO PARTIAL YES

Conclusion: The most inclusive water purification method is steam distillation.

FIRST YEAR