Sanitary significance
1. Very high values of alkalinity are harmful to aquatic organisms.
2. Alkalinity in boiler feed water causes caustic embrittlement of pipes.
Removal of Alkalinity
Alkalinity in water, can be removed by adding limited amount of HC1.
6. TDS
TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. It is defined as the measure of all inorganic
and organic substances present in water.
Significance
(i) TDS impacts the salinity of water.
(ii) TDS in water may not be ideal for your health and must be filtered out before intake.
(iii) Water with TDS level higher than 300 ppm may not be potable as it can taste salty.
(iv) Water with high level of TDS (> 1200) impacts the color, odour and taste dramatically.
(v) Water with high level of TDS may not be suitable due to excessive scaling caused by it in
water pipes, heaters, boilers and household appliances.
7. Fluoride
Fluoride is found in ground water as a result of dissolution from geologic
formulations. Surface waters generally contain much smaller concentration of fluoride.
Sources
Fluoride containing minerals} ⇒ Fluorapatite (Ca10 F2 (PO4)6),
cryolite (Na3AlF6) and igneous rocks containing fluosilicates.
Contaminated domestic sewage, run-off from agricultural lands} ⇒ Phosphate fertilizers
Sanitary significance
1. Optimum fluoride concentrations, prescribed in public water supplies, are in the range of
0.7 to 1.2 mg / lit.
2. Beneficial health effects have been observed where the fluoride levels are optimum.
3. If the fluoride concentration is low in drinking water it causes dental caries in children.
4. If the fluoride concentration is high it causes fluorosis.
Removal of fluoride (Defluorination)
1. Precipitation using aluminium salts in alkaline media.
2. Using strongly basic anion exchange resin.
3. By adsorption on activated carbon.
8. Arsenic
Arsenic is a metallic element that forms a number of poisonous compounds. It is
found in nature at low levels, mostly in compounds, with oxygen, chlorine and sulfur.
Source
Arsenic can get into drinking water from natural deposits (or) runoff from agriculture, mining
and industrial processes.
Significance
(i) Long-term intake of arsenic contaminated water leads to arsenic poisoning with cancer of
skin, bladder, kidney.
(ii) Association of arsenic contaminated water produces diabetes, hypertension and
reproductive disorders.
(iii) Children may have more exposure to arsenic in drinking water. As a result, children may
be at greater risk of illness when higher levels of arsenic are present.
9. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
COD is defined as, “the measure of amount of oxygen required to chemically oxidise
all the oxidisable impurity present in the sewage using an oxidising agent like acidified
K2Cr2O7”.
Significance of COD
(i) Determination of COD is carried out only in 3 hour but determination of BOD is carried
out after 5 days.
(ii) It measures both the biologically oxidisable and biologically inert organic matter.
(iii) COD test is used to monitor water treatment plant efficiency.
(iv) COD is used to measure pollutants in water, waste water and aqueous hazardous wastes.
(v) It provides an index to assess the effect of discharge waste water on the environment.
10. Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)
BOD is defined as, “the amount of free oxygen require by bacteria for the biological
oxidation of the organic matte under aerobic conditions at 20°C for a period of 5 days”.
Significance of BOD
(i) It indicates the amount of decomposable organic matter present in the sewage.
(ii) It enables us to determine the degree of pollution at any time in the sewage stream.
(iii) Lesser the BOD, better is the quality of water. ie. The water sample with BOD of less
than 3 ppm is considered as pure water, whereas the water more than 4 ppm i considered as
polluted water.
11. Hardness of Water
Hardness is the property (or) characteristics of water, which does not produce lather
with soap.
Types of hardness
Depending upon the types of dissolved salts present in water, hardness of water can
be classified into two types
1. Temporary hardness.
2. Permanent hardness.
1. Temporary hardness (or) Carbonate hardness (CH) (or) alkaline hardness
This is due to the presence of bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium. It can be
removed by (i) boiling the water (ii) adding lime to the water.
2. Permanent hardness (or) Non-carbonate hardness (NCH) (or) Non-alkaline hardness
This is due to the presence of chlorides and sulphates of calcium and magnesium. It
cannot be removed by boiling the water. But, it can be removed by (i) Lime-soda process (ii)
Zeolite process.
Significance of Hardness
1. Hardness affects the amount of soap that is needed to produce foam (or) lather.
2. Hardness is very important in industrial uses, because it forms scale in heat exchange
equipment boilers and pipe lines.
3. Hardness mitigates metal toxicity because Ca2+ and Mg2+ help keep fish from absorbing
metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium into their blood [Link] ionic as well as non-
ionic, colloidal impurities.
4. Due to low capital cost, simplicity, low operating, this process is used for converting sea
water into drinking water.
9. Describe the detailed about the municipal water treatment process? (16) (C104.1,
PO1, PO2, PO3)
Rivers and lakes are the most common sources of water used by municipalities. These
water should be free from colloidal impurities, domestic sewages, industrial effluents and
disease producing bacteria. Hence domestic supply of water involves the following stages in
the purification processes.
I. Primary Treatment
1. Screening
It is a process of removing the floating materials like, leaves, wood pieces, etc. from
water. The raw water is allowed to pass through a screen, having large number of holes,
which retains the floating materials and allows the water to pass.
2. Aeration
The process of mixing water with air is known as aeration. The main purpose of
aeration is
(i) to remove gases like CO2, H2S and other volatile impurities causing bad taste and odour
to water.
(ii) to remove ferrous and manganous salts as insoluble ferric and manganic salts.
3. Sedimenation
It is a process of removing suspended impurities by allowing the water to stand
undisturbed for 2-6 hours in a big tank. Most of the suspended particles settle down at the
bottom, due to forces of gravity, and they are removed. Sedimentation removes only 75% of
the suspended impurities.
4. Coagulation
Finely divided clay, silica, etc. do not settle down easily and hence cannot be removed
by sedimentation. Such impurities are removed by coagulation method.
In this method certain chemicals, called coagulants, like alum, Al2(SO4)3 [Link] added to
water. When the Al2(SO4)3 is added to water, it gets hydrolysed to form a gelatinous
precipitate of Al(OH)3. The gelatinous precipitate of Al(OH)3 entraps the finely divided and
colloidal impurities, settles to the bottom and can be removed easily.
5. Filtration
It is the process of removing bacteria, colour, taste, odour and suspended particles,
etc., by passing the water through filter beds containing fine sand, coarse sand and gravel. A
typical sand filter is shown in the figure 1.1.
The sand filter consists of a tank containing a thick top layer of fine sand followed by
coarse sand, fine gravel and coarse gravel. When the water passes through the filtering
medium, it flows through the various beds slowly. The rate of filtration decreases slowly due
to the clogging of impurities in the pores of the sand bed. When the rate of filtration becomes
very slow, the filtration is stopped and the thick top layer of fine sand is scrapped off and
replaced with clean sand. Bacteria’s are also party removed by this process.
II. Sterilisation (or) Disinfection
The process of destroying the harmful bacteria’s is known as sterilisation or
disinfection. The chemicals used for this purpose are called disinfectants. This process can be
carried out by the following methods.
1. By using ozone
Ozone is a powerful disinfectant and is readily absorbed by water. Ozone is highly
unstable and breaks down to give nascent oxygen.
O3 → O2 + [O]
The nascent oxygen is a powerful oxidising agent and kills the bacterias.
Disadvantages
(a) This process is costly and cannot be used in large scale.
(b) Ozone is unstable and cannot be stored for long time.
2. By using ultraviolet (UV) radiations
UV rays are produced by passing electric current through mercury vapour lamp. This
is particularly useful for sterilizing water in swimming pool.
Disadvantages
(i) It is costly.
(ii) Turbid water cannot be treated.
3. By chlorination
The process of adding chlorine to water is called chlorination. Chlorination can be
done by the following methods.
(a) By adding chlorine gas
Chlorine gas can be bubbled in the water as a very good disinfectant.
(b) By adding chloramine
When chlorine and ammonia are mixed in the ratio 2:1, a compound chloramine is
formed.
Cl2 + NH3 → CINH2 (Chloramine) + HCl
Chloramine compounds decompose slowly to give chlorine. It is a better disinfectant
than chlorine.
(c) By adding bleaching powder
When bleaching powder is added to water, it produces hypochlorous acid (HOCI).
HOCI is a powerful germicide.
CaoCl2 (Bleaching powder ) + H2O → Ca(OH)2 + Cl2
Cl2 + H2O → HCl + HOCI(Hypochlorous acid)
HOCl + Bacteria’s → Bacteria’s are killed
Break point Chlorination
Water contains the following impurities
(i) Bacteria’s.
(ii) Organic impurities.
(iii) Reducing substances (Fe2+, H2S, etc.).
(iv) Free ammonia.
Chlorine may be added to water directly as a gas or in the form of bleaching powder.
When chlorine is applied to water, the results obtained can be depicted graphically in the
following Fig. 1.2. The graph shows the relationship between the amount of chlorine added to
water and the residual chlorine.
It is observed from the graph that initially the applied chlorine is used to kill the
bacterias and oxidises all the reducing substances present in the water and there is no free
residual chlorine.
As the amount of applied chlorine increases, the amount of combined residual
chlorine also increases. This is due to the formation of chloramine and other chloro
compounds.
At one point, on further chlorination, the oxidation of chloramines and other
impurities starts and there is a fall in the combined chlorine content.
Break point chlorination is the point at which the combined residual chlorine
decreases to a minimum point where oxidation of chloramines and other impurities complete
and free residual chlorine begins to appear.
Thus, the break point chlorination eliminates bacterias, reducing substances, organic
substances responsible for the bad taste and odour, from the water.
The process of destroying the harmful bacteria’s is known as sterilization or disinfection. The
chemicals used for this purpose are called disinfectants. This process can be carried out by
the following methods.
1. By using ozone
Ozone is a powerful disinfectant and is readily absorbed by water. Ozone is highly unstable
and breaks down to give nascent oxygen.
O3 → O2 + [O]
The nascent oxygen is a powerful oxidising agent and kills the bacterias.
Disadvantages
(a) This process is costly and cannot be used in large scale.
(b) Ozone is unstable and cannot be stored for long time.
2. By using ultraviolet (UV) radiations
UV rays are produced by passing electric current through mercury vapour lamp. This
is particularly useful for sterilizing water in swimming pool.
Disadvantages
(i) It is costly.
(ii) Turbid water cannot be treated.
Fig: Break point chlorination
Chlorine may be added to water directly as a gas or in the form of bleaching powder.
When chlorine is applied to water, the results obtained can be depicted graphically in the
following Fig. The graph shows the relationship between the amount of chlorine added to
water and the residual chlorine.
It is observed from the graph that initially the applied chlorine is used to kill the
bacteria’s and oxidizes all the reducing substances present in the water and there is no free
residual chlorine. As the amount of applied chlorine increases, the amount of combined
residual chlorine also increases. This is due to the formation of chloramine and other chloro
compounds.
At one point, on further chlorination, the oxidation of chloramines and other impurities starts
and there is a fall in the combined chlorine content. Break point chlorination is the point at
which the combined residual chlorine decreases to a minimum point where oxidation of
chloramines and other impurities complete and free residual chlorine begins to appear.
Thus, the break point chlorination eliminates bacteria’s, reducing substances, organic
substances responsible for the bad taste and odour, from the water.
10. Explain external treatment in detail. [Nov/Dec 2015, May 2016]
(a) Zeolite
Zeolites are naturally occurring hydrated sodium aluminosilicate. Its general formula
is Na2O. Al2O3 . xSiO2 .yH2O.(x = 2 - 10, y = 2 - 6) Natural zeolites are green sand and non-
porous. The synthetic form of zeolite is known as permutit, which is porous and possess gel
like structure, hence it is generally used for water softening.
(b) Zeolite process
Zeolites is porous and possess gel like structure, hence it is generally used for water
softening. It is represented by Na2Ze. The sodium ions which are loosely held in Na2Ze are
replaced by Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions present in the water.
Process
When hard water is passed through a bed of sodium zeolite (Na2Ze), kept in a cylinder
(Fig.), it exchanges its sodium ions with Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions present in the hard water to
form calcium and magnesium zeolites. The various reactions taking place during softening
process are
CaSO4 + Na2Ze → CaZe + Na2SO4
Fig. Zeolite Process
The softened water is enriched with large amount of sodium salts, which do not cause
any hardness, but cannot be used in boilers.
Regeneration
After some time zeolite gets exhausted. The exhausted zeolite is again regenerated by
treating with 10% solution of NaCl.
CaZe + 2NaCl → Na2Ze + CaCl2
Advantages of Zeolite process
(i) Water will have only hardness of 1-2 ppm.
(ii) No sludge is formed during this process.
(iii) Its operation is easy.
Disadvantages of Zeolite process
(i) Turbid water cannot be treated.
(ii) Acidic water cannot be treated.
(iii) Water containing Fe, Mn cannot be treated.
This process removes almost all the ions (both anions and cations) present in hard
water. Demineralization process is carried out by using ion exchange resins.
Fig. Demineralisation process
(i) Cation exchanger
Resins containing acidic functional groups (-COOH - SO3H) are capable of
exchanging their Ht ions with other cations of hard water. It is represented as RH2.
(ii) Anion Exchanger
Resins containing basic functional groups (-NH2, -OH) are capable of exchanging
their anions with other anions of hard water. It is represented as R (OH)2
Process
The hard water first passed through a cation exchange column, (Fig which absorbs all
the cations like Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, etc., present in the hard water.
RH2 + CaCl2 → RCa + 2HC1
RH + NaCl → RNa + HCl
The cation free water is then passed through a anion exchange column, which absorbs
all the anions like Cl-, SO2-4, HCO-3, etc., present in the water.
R'(OH)2 + 2HCl → R' Cl2 + 2H2O
The water coming out of the anion exchanger is completely free from cations and
anions. This water is known as demineralised water or deionised water.
Regeneration
When the cation exchange resin is exhausted, it can be regenerated by passing a
solution of dil HCl or dil H2SO4.
RCa + 2HCl → RH2 + CaCl2
Similarly, when the anion exchange resin is exhausted, it can be regenerated by passing a
solution of dil NaOH.
R'Cl2 + 2NaOH → R'(OH)2 + 2NaCl.