Water Purification Technology - a Look at 6 Methods of Water Purification

Let's face it, there are a lot of elements involved in the latest water purification technology. The methods of water purification have changed over the years. The technology has gotten better and new techniques have evolved. Here, we look at water purification technology, both old and new.

Here are some of the methods of water purification that exist today.

1. Distillation was one of the first methods of water purification, but it still deserves mention. You bring the liquid to a boil, in order to turn it into vapor. It is sent to another container and then allowed to cool. All impurities with a boiling point above 100°C remain in the original container, but any impurities with a boiling point near or below 100°C pass through to the secondary container. So, some chemical contaminants are not removed with this water purification technology.

2. Activated carbon filtration is a water purification technology that removes chemical contaminants by taking out many compounds. When used as home filters sometimes a little silver is added, causing the release of silver ions for an anti bacterial effect. When silver is used, the water purification technology is referred to as GAC or granular activated carbon. Chemicals and other contaminants are trapped on the surface of the filter.

3. Sub micron filtration is one of the better methods of water purification. This can be achieved with either a synthetic membrane or a ceramic one which could be reused up to fifty times with regular cleaning. It offers 100% cyst removal and 99.99% E Coli removal. Cysts are bacterial contaminants during the spore stage of development when they are particularly resistant to chlorine. Silver is used in this water purification technology, as well, because of its anti bacterial effect.

4. Reverse osmosis is a water purification process where a liquid is pressurized mechanically and run through a semi porous membrane to clean out debris. The disadvantages are that it is slow and wasteful. Also if the membranes are not cleaned often, they develop algae.

5. Electro-deionization is usually one of the methods of water purification, that must be followed by additional steps to provide something safe to drink. This water purification technology involves a system called "ion exchange". It has no effect on "non-ionic" contaminates, which include microbes, bacteria and cysts.

6. Ultra-filtration is one of the newer methods of water purification. It uses a chemically formed artificial membrane customized to target specific types of micro organisms dependent upon their size.

In order to be complete, a water purification technology must include numerous steps. You may already see why. Some methods of water purification disinfect or kill bacteria, while other methods remove chemical contaminants.

Public treatment facilities usually use chlorine for disinfection. Then, at the point of use, aware citizens will use carbon filtration to remove the chlorine. Thus, today's water purification technology actually includes the public utilities and the general public. Are you doing your share to help?