WATER PURIFICATION

Content Introduction Water Purification Importance Methods of water purification Sedimentation Filtration Slow sand filtration Rapid sand filtration Disinfection chlorination Reference

INTRODUCTION:
Water is elixir of life. It is essentially a basic requirement of all kinds of living things because it is a essential part of protoplasm. Therefore no life can exist without it. Major area (about three-fourth) of earth surface is covered by water, mainly by ocean & to some extent by lakes, rivers, streams, ponds etc. Practically all water supplies under natural conditions contain microbes. Water receives microorganisms from air, soil, sewage, organic wastes, dead plants & animals etc. The numbers & kinds of microbes present depend upon source of water. In addition to microbes various chemical substances, both organic & inorganic may be present in water which find their way through industrial & agricultural wastes. Humans are not exempted from this requirement, as water is our lifeline that bath us & feed us. Next to air, water is what man needs most. Not only is drinking water is essential to maintaining health it is also important for cooking, personal hygiene, sanitation, cleaning wounds & sprouting seed. In order to ensure a consistent source of high quality water, it has become necessary to remove & control harmful contaminants which are found in water. This requires very accurate chemical & biological methods of water purification.

WATER PURIFICATION:

It is a process of removing undesirable chemicals, materials & biological contaminants from contaminated water.

IMPORTANCE :
Water is unfit to drink, when it contains human sewage, animals waste or other pollutants. Therefore purification of water is essential before its consumption so that disease cycle of pathogenic microorganism can be broken. Thus purification of water results in prevention of pathogens to reach to human body. Therefore, water purification is done with the perspective of making it satisfactory in appearance, taste, odor & free from pathogen.

METHOD OF WATER PURIFICATION:

There are several methods for purification of water the use of which depends upon amount & quality of water. For example, purification of water required for a town or city. There are three chief methods or steps which are used for purification of drinking water in municipal supplies i-e Sedimentation Filtration Disinfection

SEDIMENTATION:
It is a process whereby particulate contaminants & microbes that may be attached to their surface are removed from the water. Sedimentation is done when water consist of large sized organic materials such as leaves & gravels which have run off from the soil. Suspended particles settle down depending on their size & weight & conditions of the stored water. The rate of sedimentation is enhanced by adding chemicals such as aluminum sulfate (alum) or iron sulfate or colloidal silicates, as a powder onto water & they form jelly like masses of coagulated material called floccules. The floccules fall through the water & cling to organic particles & microorganism, dragging a major portion to the bottom sediments. This process is called flocculation. The microorganism remain viable for sometime. Thus sedimentation provides partial reduction of microorganism in water due to their settling down on bottom but does not sterilized the water.

FILTERATION:
It is the second step of purification. After sedimentation the water is further purified by passing to filtration unit. It is a process that puts final spark in water because it is an effective means of removing microorganism and the other suspended materials from the water. Although different types of filtrating materials are available, most filters utilize layer of sand & gravels to trap microorganisms. There are two types of sand filters which are used in water purification such as Slow sand filters Rapid sand filters

Slow sand filters :

This plant is of an area of one or more acre, consist of a concrete floor containing drainage tiles (for collection of filtered water). The tile is covered with first coarse sand & finally 2 to 1 feet of sand at the top of plant. The water to be filtered is filled is poured onto the surface of filter bed, passes very slowly thus named slow sand filters. And collected by tile drain pipe which later on pumped into a reservoir. The capacity of this plant to filter about 5 million of water per acre per day. Water purification is done not by physical action but by physiological mechanisms supported by microorganism. In the surface layers of fine sand a colloidal material, consisting of bacteria, protozoa & algae is attached. This mucilaginous material called schmutzdecke (Ger. dirty layer) makes the pore more effective by closing the pores between the sand grains. Sand grains have positive charge & bacterial cell walls have negative charge. Therefore bacteria are absorbed on the surface. Protozoa ingest bacteria. Due to intense microbial interaction, chemical concentration of water is reduced. When filtration efficiency of plant is reduced due to deposition of thick slimy layer, the plant is taken out for cleaning. Through this plant, the pathogenic microorganism such as Giardia & its cyst which are not removed by any other method can be filtered from water (logsdon 1991).

Rapid sand filters:

This plant constructed similar to slow sand filter but comparatively small area is required to construct the filter bed. This plant consist of tile for drainage the filtered water, 12-18 inches thick layer of gravel & 2.5 feet thick sand layer. The water is allowed to pass through rapid sand filter plant that depends on physical trapping of fine particles & floccules. No schmutzdecke is formed. This plant operates about 50 times faster than slow sand filter plant, & can delivers about 150 to 200 million

gallons of water per acre per day. It requires less cost & less maintenance. Therefore , many plants are constructed in a chain. If one plant is being cleaned (by forcing water back through filter by mechanical pressure), the others are under operation. About 9095% of all bacteria are removed by this plant.

DISINFECTION:
It is the final step of water purification in order to kill the non-sporing microbes, particularly pathogenic bacteria, which survived in filteration. Solution of sodium hypochlorite are treated in small towns but in recent years, chlorine has become popular. Chlorination involves the release of chlorine gas in water which gets readily mixed up with water. Though this process does not necessarily remove all kinds of microorganisms, it reduces microbial population to a safe level. Chlorine is an extremely most popular economical disinfectant all over the globe for water purification. It act as a most powerful oxidizing agent, also eliminates foul odors & taste in water that may be present in water after treatment. The amount of chlorine required depend on organic matter & number of microbes present in water. Therefore, the amount of chlorine required for disinfection is called chlorine demand. A chlorine residual level of 0.2 to 1 part per million (ppm) is often used as standard. If the concentration of chlorine exceed its demand, peculiar smell & taste are experienced due to he formation of chlorophenols.

The mechanism of action on microorganism is, after reacting with water it converted into hypochlorus acid Cl2 + H2O =====> HCl + HClO

Which in turn quickly release nascent oxygen HClO ====== > HCl + O The nascent oxygen soon oxidizing cellular components of microorganism including proteins, denature cellular enzymes & thus blocks the metabolic activities.

REFERENCE:

A Text book of Microbiology R . C . Dubey D . K. Mheshwari Second edition

Fundamentals of Microbiology Edward Alcamo Sixth edition Basic Microbiology Prof. Abdul Mubin khan www.wikipedia.com www.saws.org/training.html

www.milipore.com