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Water TreatmentWater treatment products play a major role in the process of modifying the properties of untreated water in some way for a specific purpose. However, since water is used for a wide variety of applications with differing requirements, each customer will have their own definition of „optimum“ water treatment.
Water treatment products are used for what Wikipedia defines as „ the process of changing the quality of water for a specific purpose“. There are essentially two types of treatment of water:
and
The range of possible treatment options with a water disinfectant is therefore rather wide and encompasses far more than „just“ water sterilisation and decontamination. Let’s take a closer look at some common water treatment methods:
One of the best-known methods, and a key component of virtually every water treatment plant, is the process of filtering the water. With a little technical understanding, you can even build a water filter yourself. Depending on the quality and pore size of the filters, sand, particulate matter, protozoa, algae, bacteria and, in extreme cases, even viruses can be removed from the water. The highest level of water treatment by means of filter technology is called „ultrafiltration“, a process that is used to produce ultrapure water by means of membrane technology, most commonly in the high-tech sector.
In addition to filters with different „mesh sizes“, which also include gravel or sand filters, activated carbon filters are especially prevalent in water treatment systems. On the one hand, activated carbon is relatively cheap, and on the other, its properties enable the extraction of unwanted chemicals from the water. Not only large water works, but also many household water treatment systems use multiple filters arranged in a row. Typically, these include a pre-filter, a coarse filter, a fine filter (e.g. containing kieselguhr) and an activated carbon filter. In addition, many mobile water treatment systems, such as those deployed in response to natural disasters, contain multi-stage filtration systems.
Unfortunately, filters are prone to becoming „caked“ with deposited particles, and also contaminated due to microbial growth and biofilm formation. Filters must therefore be regularly cleaned, maintained, disinfected and/or replaced to ensure optimum water treatment. Sanosil AG offers a range of outstanding water treatment products containing hydrogen peroxide and silver ions for these purposes.
The primary process with water treatment chemicals is softening, which is most commonly achieved via ion exchange.
The ion-exchange principle is a type of treatment in which the dissolved salts Ca2+ (lime) and Mg2+ (magnesium) are removed from the water in order to reduce its hardness.
During this process, drinking water is passed through special ion-exchange resins made from a type of plastic. The exchangers pick up dissolved ions with a specific charge and release a corresponding amount of different ions with the same charge. This means that lime and magnesium molecules are removed from the water because they are more strongly attracted to the binding sites on the ion-exchange materials, which, in turn, release the weakly binding molecules attached to the resins. Specifically, calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged with sodium ions, thereby softening the water. The ion-exchange resin must be treated and the entire system cleaned and disinfected regularly — otherwise, there is a high risk of microbial contamination and biofilm formation. Sanosil AG offers corresponding water treatment products for these tasks.
Additional chemical water treatment takes place, for example, during iron removal/demanganisation. In this process, air or hydrogen peroxide is added to the water and undesirable substances are removed via oxidation.
By contrast, in the case of water disinfection or water sterilisation, it is primarily a question of killing pathogenic, mucous-forming or corrosive microbes in the water. This type of system is typically associated with outdoor water treatment systems based on chemical water treatment tablets (e.g. potassium permanganate or chlorine tablets) or water disinfectants such as Sanosil S015. However, in industrial water treatment, disinfection of water via UV tubes, chlorine dioxide, ozone, chlorine, etc, is more common — not least because user error can quickly result in the release of toxic substances, therefore expert operation is required.
In addition to chemical processes, there is also thermal disinfection — boiling water is after all the simplest method of them all. This method is also used to kill legionellae in hot water systems by regularly raising the water temperature above 60 degrees Celsius. Although thermal disinfection is a very reliable method, it requires a lot of energy. In addition, lime and magnesium precipitate when water is heated strongly, unless this is counteracted via stabilisers such as phosphonates. Therefore, thermal water sterilisation is less suitable for large-scale water treatment.
Water disinfection is not only very common in the treatment of drinking water, but also in the area of cooling water. Unless cooling water is treated with biocides such as Sanosil C, mucous structures and/or biofilms will form almost immediately on all surfaces. This not only hinders the flow rate through pipes, but also reduces the heat transfer in heat exchangers — and thus compromises the efficiency of the entire system. In addition, these biofilms massively promote corrosion, producing an effect that is analogous to dental caries.
Water conservation is equally as important as water disinfection. The difference between disinfection and conservation is that, in the former, the number of microbes in the water is actively reduced. By contrast, the goal of water conservation is simply to ensure that any existing microbes can no longer multiply. It goes without saying that far fewer water treatment chemicals are required for water conservation than for disinfection.
The most well-known form of water conservation is no doubt water treatment in swimming pools by means of a chlorine bleach solution (public pools) or water treatment tablets (private pools) as water conservation products.
The most important water conservation method, however, is so-called „line protection“. This is due to the fact that, once the water has been perfectly treated at the waterworks using the methods mentioned above, it still has to travel a long way to reach the end consumer. Therefore, a small dose of disinfectant is added to the drinking water to prevent subsequent contamination.
The Sanosil water treatment products are not only extremely effective for disinfection of water — they are also perfect for water conservation thanks to their low silver content, which inhibits re-contamination.
For the sake of completeness, a few additional, non-scientific water treatment products and methods should also be mentioned here. Most types of esoteric water treatment are based on the idea that water can be charged or discharged with positive or negative „energies.“
For example, in some water treatment plants, the water is directed through an „energetic pipe or similar“ in an attempt to give it positive properties. Other suppliers sell plants containing pebbles or gemstones, which are said to produce the same positive effects.
However, the fact of the matter is that, scientifically speaking, these devices do not produce any measurable or sensorily positive changes to the treated water — and actually do quite the opposite, since the risk of microbes breeding in such plants is relatively high. And because even the finest gemstones are not immune to bacterial growth, a rather unromantic process of regular cleaning and disinfection of these devices is necessary.
