Course on Industrial Chemistry

Lec.6:
Water treatment
Prepared by
Dr. Ahmed Afify
05/12/2020

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 Lecture’s outline
# Topic Slide
No.
1 Introduction 3

2 Composition of Seawater 4

3 Fresh water 5

4 Water Quality Parameters 6-8

5 Some factors affect the quality of water 9

6 Water desalination 10

7 Water softening 11

8 Water de-aeration 12

9 Surface Water Treatment Plant 13-19

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 Introduction
 Water is essential for life and vast number of
industries (coolant, solvent and steam generation),
 Water cover about 72% of earth’s surface.
 Global water cycle where water can evaporate
from oceans, lakes etc. then this vapor accumulates
and deposits onto the earth 'surface as rain and snow.
 Sunlight penetrate to a depth about 200 m while
below 1000 m (1km) depth in sea the water will be
black and has a temperature of 4°C.
 Source of water: the primary source of water is
oceans which have about 97.2 % of the earth’s water.
 If we need more pure water we will need to use
Seawater (saline water or brine) where the mass of
dissolved salts is 35g/kg although the drinkable water
is less than 0.5g/kg.
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 Composition of Seawater
Most common ion is chloride is 19 g and
sodium about 10 g thus sodium chloride
about 85% of the total dissolved salts.
Composition differs between seas and oceans:

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 Fresh water
 Fresh water: it has low concentration of
dissolved salts (<500ppm) and can be found in
rivers, lakes etc.
 It has low amount on earth compared to saline
water and forms mainly from evaporation of water
from oceans and seas and precipitation back to
earth even rain water contains dissolved materials
 About 20% of freshwater is under the surface of
the earth (ground water).
 Ground water resides in layers of porous rocks
called aquifers which can be accessible near the
surface. The properties of water in it depend on the
nature and composition of the aquifers rocks.
Beneath these layers there are dense rocks that do
not allow water to penetrate, which holds water for
thousands of years.
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 Water Quality Parameters
Water quality is determined by assessing three
classes of attributes: physical, chemical, and
biological moreover, there are standards of
water quality set for each of these three classes
of attributes.
For the physical tests:
Temperature: is always done in-situ using a thermometer (it
should be the same as atmospheric T,
Color: often due to the presence of organic materials or some
minerals, it compared with standard color solution,
Odour: Should be done in-situ or within 5 mins of sample
collection,
Taste: Do this at your own risk and often done at treatment
plants,
Turbidity: Is due to the presence of suspended and colloidal
matter, thus, and can be measured by the amount of light that is
scattered by the sample.
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For the chemical tests:
Total dissolved Solids (TDS): measure the suspended and dissolved
solids where, water is filtered, then the residue is dried and weighed then
compared to the original sample,
Electrical Conductivity (EC): the ability of aqueous solution to carry
an electric current thus it is easy to measure the salinity which gives
good idea of ions like Na+, Cl- ,
if you’re not in a lab, we can estimate TDS levels based on the
conductivity of the water as the relation:
𝑻𝑫𝑺 𝒎𝒈𝑳−𝟏 = 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝝁𝑺𝒄𝒎−𝟏 × 𝟎. 𝟔𝟕
Hardness, the presence of carbonate and sulphate of Ca and Mg and
expressed in mg/L or ppm.
Chlorides, the presence of NaCl due to saline water, it can be diluted,
Iron and manganese, which make the colour of water brownish red
and the growth of microorganism.,
pH value: it measures the acidity or alkalinity of water.
Nutrients: nitrate and total nitrogen, phosphorus in the form of
phosphate.
Heavy Metals: they are essential for microorganism in trace amounts
and excess amount causes harmful effect to human.
Other stuff: Pesticides Radioactive Materials, etc.
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For the Microbial tests:
It measures the the presence or lack of
living organisms. Some organisms can be used
as an indication for the existence of pollutants
such as, the group of coliforms which exist in
the intestinal system of humans and are
excreted with body wastes , thus sewage will
always contain coliforms in particular
Escherichia coli or E. coli. Testing for coliforms
is done by membrane filter method
Dissolved oxygen (DO): it is useful for organism
to survive
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD): measure
the decrease in oxygen by microorganism.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD): measure
oxidation of water with dichromate. 8
Some factors affect the quality of water
Water pollution: chemical, biological or physical
change in water quality and causes illness and death
in humans and other species and disrupts
ecosystems. Quality of Water affected by dissolved
salts and the human activities such as using of
agricultural activities (fertilizer, pesticides) and
industrial facilities (synthetic chemical) which may
contribute in contamination with heavy metals etc.
Moreover, dissolved O2 is needed for aerobic
bacteria to oxidize organic materials present in
water (biodegradable materials). Hence, in presence
of O2 elements such as C, N2,P, H2 are converted to
gases while absence of O2 will produce CH4, NH3 by
the action of anaerobic bacteria. 9
 Water desalination
How to treat water:
1)Natural desalination which includes 4
steps: evaporation, condensation, precipitation
then collection of water.
2) Distillation: heating of water then
cooling (to get fresh water) but it
consumes a lot of energy.
3) Using reverse osmosis:
As sea water has high concentration
of NaCl.
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 Water softening
 Hard water: water contains high
The process of removal
concentration of Ca and Mg ions. of these ions
 Has (-Ve) effect on water as they
react with detergent and form
insoluble materials thus deteriorate
the function of detergent. Additionally,
they form insoluble materials (scales)
in water heaters that limits efficiency
of the heating process and may
extended to plug water pipes.
 It can be done by two methods:
1)Addition of Na2CO3 and Ca(OH)2
to precipitate them.
2) Using ion exchange resin:
2𝑁𝑎 𝑅 − 𝐶𝑂𝑂 𝑠 + 𝐶𝑎 + 2 𝑎𝑞 → 𝐶𝑎 𝑅 − 𝐶𝐶𝑂 2 𝑠 + 2𝑁𝑎 + (𝑎𝑞) 11
 Water de-aeration
 It is Necessary to condition water for
industrial boilers uses not for municipal
water.
 Dissolved O2 hasten the corrosion following
some reactions in the presence of water and
O2 to form ferric hydroxide
 The corrosion can be stopped by removing
the dissolved O2 , electrode polarization,
organic inhibitors and protective salt (silicate,
chromate, phosphate) forming anodic inhibitor
by forming a film over the active area of the
anode to stop forming the galvanic cell.
Moreover, using of sodium sulphite or
hydrazine hydrate lead to deoxygenation
to minimize the corrosion.
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 Surface Water Treatment Plant
It transforms raw surface and groundwater
into safe drinking water. It involves two major
processes: physical removal of solids and
chemical disinfection.

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 A Treatment Plant
1. Intake: Water is taken from the source then it
screened out after that, it drawn into the treatment
plant. If the source is groundwater, the "screening" is
done by the soil as the water travels under the earth's
surface. Sometimes very little treatment is required for
groundwater.
2. Chemical Addition: The water is mixed with some
chemicals such as: Aluminum sulfate (alum), polymers
and/or chlorine to aid in the removal of the settle solids
in the water (very small particles and metals) as well as
for pH adjustments, kill germs, improve taste and odor.
3. Coagulation and Flocculation: the alum and
other chemicals from the chemical addition step causes
the particles to stick together and form larger particles
called floc which attract the dirt particles.
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4. Sedimentation: The combined weight of
the dirt and the alums (floc) becomes heavy
enough to fall, by gravity or sink to the bottom
in a settling tank during sedimentation. Simply,
The water and the floc particles flow into a
sedimentation basin.
5. Filtration: From the sedimentation basin,
the water flows through filters. Filters are
made of layers of sand and gravel. The
filters are used to remove any remaining
particles left in the water.

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6. Disinfection: A small amount of chlorine, or
other disinfecting chemicals, is added. In some
water systems, especially those with groundwater
sources, this is the only treatment provided. The
main purpose of disinfection is to make Drinking
water free of any disease causing bacteria and
microbes.
Methods of disinfection:
There are 3 mainly used disinfection methods at
large scale:
a) Chlorination
b) Ozonation
c) Ultraviolet radiation
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a) Chlorination
Chlorine is the most common cost-effective means of
disinfecting water. The addition of a small amount of
chlorine is highly effective against most bacteria,
viruses, and protozoa. But cysts (durable seed-like
stages) formed by parasitic protozoa such as:
Cryptosporidium and Giardia can survive chlorine. It
is applied to water in one of three forms: elemental
chlorine (chlorine gas), hypochlorite solution (bleach),
or dry calcium hypochlorite. All three forms produce
free chlorine in water. Cl2 is cheaper than O3 its
reaction with water as follows:
𝐶𝑙2 + 𝐻2 𝑂 → 𝐻𝐶𝑙𝑜 + 𝐶𝑙 − (𝑎𝑞)
Although it create some groups considered
carcinogenic (THMs) like CHCl3, CHClBr2, CHBr3
they react with HClO with organic matters it should
be THMs less than 80 ppb.
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b)Ozonation
OZONE is Strongest oxidant/disinfectant available. It is
more effective against microbes than chlorination but,
costly and difficult to monitor and control under different
condition.
Ozonation process: it is generated on-site at water
treatment facilities by passing dry oxygen or air through a
system of high voltage electrodes.
Ozone and chlorine dioxide produce less harmful by-
products. However presence of bromide in water oxidize
it to bromate BrO3- which causes cancer.
c)Ultraviolet radiation
When UV radiation penetrates the cell wall of an
organism, it damages genetic material, and prevents the
cell from reproducing. Nowadays, emerging technology
made UV radiation to find a place in both household and
large scale drinking water disinfection. Ultraviolet light is
most typically generated from a low pressure or a
medium pressure lamp generating UV light.
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7. Storage: The water is placed in a closed
tank or reservoir called a clear well. This allows
time for the chlorine to mix throughout the
water in order for disinfection to take place.
The water then flows into the distribution
system.
 The water is sampled and tested
throughout the treatment plant; sampling is
performed to make sure the processes are
working and that the water is safe before it
leaves the plant. Usually, governments set
standards for drinking water, when water
leaves a treatment plant, it is as clean or
cleaner than required by these standards.
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Thank you for your attention

Dr. Ahmed Afify 20