Distillation - How does it work?

Distillation is a water purification process that uses a heat source to vaporize

water and separate it from contaminants and other undesirable elements
commonly found in ground and surface water. Distillation heats raw (untreated)
water until the water reaches its boiling point and begins to vaporize. The heat is
then kept at a constant temperature to maintain water vaporization while
prohibiting other undesirable elements from vaporizing. Water has a lower boiling
point than salt and other mineral sediments. This process also separates the
water molecules from microscopic, disease-causing organisms. Once all of the
water has vaporized, the vapor is led into a condenser, where, upon cooling, the
water reverts to the liquid form and runs into a receiving container. The remaining
elements, whose boiling point was too high to permit vaporization, remain in the
original container and constitute the sediment (Holland, Siqueiros, Santoyo,
Heard, & Santoyo, 1999). Because the distillation process can never ensure a
complete separation between water and other materials, it is often repeated one
or more times with the treated water. Many alcoholic beverages, like brandy, gin,
and whiskey, are distilled, using an apparatus similar in constitution to the water
distillation apparatus.

Throughout history, people have experiment with the use of solar power in
distillation (Holland et al, 1999). Because of the cost of a heating source to initiate
the distillation process, solar power seems an efficient and environmentally
friendly alternative to traditional power. Though solar power can be effective for
distillation purposes, it works only with relatively small amounts of liquid. Also, the
time required for multiple distillations is much greater when relying on solar
power than when using traditional power sources.

Distillation - Pros and Cons

Aside from desalinating water, the distillation process will reliably remove bacteria
and viruses and dangerous heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury.
Distillation is ideal for recipients of non-municipally treated water, due to the
particular challenges and heavy contamination of raw, untreated water. For this
reason, distillation is often used as the preferred method of water treatment in
developing nations that must work with heavily contaminated, untreated drinking
water. Distillation is extremely effective at the removal of bacteria and often used
in areas at high risk of waterborne diseases. Distillation also removes soluble
minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous that may harden water and
increase the occurrence of scaling.

The distillation process contains several elements that make it undesirable for
purifying drinking water. First of all, while the vaporization process will strip water
of salt, metals, and bacteria, the boiling point of most synthetic chemicals,
including pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine solutions is lower than the boiling
point of water. Synthetic chemicals are the major contaminants remaining after
municipal treatment. Distillation does not remove these harmful chemicals.

Also, distillation is a very slow process and requires a heated energy source.
Though experiments in the use of solar power have been attempted, this form of
energy is only able to treat small quantities of water and difficult to maintain at a
constant temperature (Holland et al, 1999). The inefficiency of solar power
requires the use of more costly energy forms. Also, because this process must be
repeated several times to ensure significant water purity, it could take several
hours to provide one gallon of cleansed water. Generally, distillation requires five
gallons of tap water to generate one gallon of purified water.

Finally, distillation, like reverse osmosis, strips water of natural trace elements.
When these elements are removed from water, the hydrogen composition
becomes greater in proportion, making the water very acidic. Several studies
have proven that drinking distilled water, stripped of minerals, can actually be
harmful to the body system (Rona, 1995). Long-term consumption of such de-
mineralized water can result in mineral deficiencies in the body. Though the
removal of trace minerals creates water that is ideal for use in photo or print
shops, it creates tasteless and even unhealthy drinking water.

Water Treatment Alternatives - Reverse Osmosis

Reverse osmosis refers to a process of water purification that has been used
primarily for the desalination of seawater. To understand reverse osmosis, it is first
necessary to understand osmosis. Osmosis is the term for the phenomenon
whereby if a semi-permeable membrane separates two salt solutions of different
concentration, water will migrate from the weaker solution through the membrane
to the stronger solution, until the solutions are of the same salt concentration.
Reverse osmosis subverts this process. It involves applying pressure to reverse
the natural flow of water, forcing the water to move from the more concentrated
solution to the weaker. The semi-permeable membrane is porous, allowing water
to pass through, but blocking the passage of the bulkier salt molecules (Binnie,
Kimber, & Smethurst, 2002). The end result is water sans salt on one side of the
membrane.

The semi-permeable membranes for reverse osmosis treatment are generally

constructed from polyamide-based materials. These materials are resistant to
biological degradations, but are subject to chemical attacks from chlorine.

Reverse osmosis has been used as a method of purification for ground and
surface fresh water, in addition to its role as a desalinating agent. Working with
such water sources creates some problems for the reverse osmosis system.
Because of the very small pore sizes involved in the membrane, it is vital that
ground and surface water is adequately pre-treated prior to the reverse osmosis
process. Depending upon the hardness of the water involved, scaling of the
membrane is likely to occur. If the concentration of the calcium or magnesium in
the water (the chemicals that determine water’s hardness) is at a high enough
level where the chemicals are insoluble, it will create a hard mineral on the inside
of the membrane, rendering it impotent (Vigneswaran & Visvanathan, 1995).

Reverse Osmosis - Pros and Cons

The semi-permeable membrane used in reverse osmosis contains tiny pores

through which water can flow. The small pores of this membrane are restrictive to
such organic compounds as salt and other natural minerals, which generally have
a larger molecular composition than water. These pores are also restrictive to
bacteria and disease-causing pathogens. Thus, reverse osmosis is incredibly
effective at desalinating water and providing mineral-free water for use in photo
or print shops. It is also effective at providing pathogen-free water. In areas not
receiving municipally treated water or at particular risk of waterborne diseases,
reverse osmosis is an ideal process of contaminant removal.

The reverse osmosis process contains several downsides which make it an

inefficient and ineffective means of purifying drinking water. The small pores in
the membrane block particles of large molecular structure like salt, but more
dangerous chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine are molecularly
smaller than water (Binnie et al, 2002). These chemicals can freely pass through
the porous membrane. For this reason, a carbon filter must be used as a
complimentary measure to provide safe drinking water from the reverse osmosis
process. Such chemicals are the major contaminants of drinking water after
municipal treatment.

Another downside to reverse osmosis as a method of purifying drinking water is

the removal of healthy, naturally occurring minerals in water. The membrane of a
reverse osmosis system is impermeable to natural trace minerals. These minerals
not only provide a good taste to water, but they also serve a vital function in the
body’s system. Water, when stripped of these trace minerals, can actually be
unhealthy for the body.

Reverse osmosis also wastes a large portion of the water that runs through its
system. It generally wastes two to three gallons of water for every gallon of
purified water it produces. Reverse osmosis is also an incredibly slow process
when compared to other water treatment alternatives.

What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation

Remove/Reduce?

Reverse osmosis will generally remove any molecular compounds smaller in size
than water molecules. Such compounds include salt, manganese, iron, fluoride,
lead, and calcium (Binnie et al, 2002). Reverse osmosis is extremely efficient at
stripping minerals from water, and it is highly valued as a water purification
process in the printing industry, in which mineral-free water must be used.

Although reverse osmosis supplies useful, mineral-free water for printing

purposes, it does not provide the healthiest drinking water. Reverse osmosis will
remove several mineral and chemical materials from water, including salt,
fluoride, lead, manganese, iron, and calcium. Reverse osmosis, because it
removes minerals according to physical size, is non-selective in its removal of
dangerous and beneficial minerals. Clearly, mineral contaminants like salt,
fluoride, and lead should be removed from drinking water, but minerals like iron
and manganese, because they are essential to natural body processes and
important components of drinking water, should be left in that water. Iron builds
and maintains healthy red blood cells while manganese helps in regulating
protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism. Manganese, like calcium, is also an
essential component in the building of bones and the clotting of blood. Though
many foods contain these minerals, drinking water can and should be a major
source for their intake.

Distillation removes chemicals similar to those removed by reverse osmosis, but

in a different manner. Distillation, through its water evaporation process, will
remove any chemicals or organic materials with higher boiling points than water.
Such chemicals and organic materials with higher boiling points include bacteria,
minerals, trace amounts of metals, many volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and
nitrate (Binnie et al, 2002). Clearly, distillation is valuable in its removal of the
potentially deadly VOCs and nitrate. It strips water of nearly all of its natural
minerals, though. Many of the minerals the distillation process removes are vital
to the body’s natural processes. The distillation process is not selective in its
removal of minerals, and it strips water of both dangerous and valuable mineral
compounds.
Filtration - How does it work?

The process of filtration involves the flow of water through a granular bed, of sand
or another suitable media, at a low speed. The media retains most solid matter
while permitting the water to pass. The process of filtration is usually repeated to
ensure adequate removal of unwanted particles in the water (Ramstorp, 2003).
This type of slow filtration over a granular bed is generally known as slow sand
filtration. It is the oldest method of filtration but still widely used in municipal
water treatment plants today.

More modern filtration systems use carbon as the main constituent material of the
filter. This carbon is compressed into a solid block form, as opposed to the more
loosely structured, granular, sand filters. Such filters often include other media
substances, in addition to the compressed, solid carbon. This type of water filter is
known as a multimedia filter. These filters clean water through both physical and
chemical processes. Physically, they perform the same function as slow sand
filters, blocking the passage of unwanted materials with molecular structures that
are larger than water. Chemically, the carbon or multimedia filters perform an
added filtration function. Through the process of adsorption, the atomic charge of
the carbon and other media encourages unwanted particles to abandon their
bond with the water and chemically attach to the media (Ramstorp, 2003). The
water then passes through the filter, cleansed of undesirable materials. The
addition of extra media to the standard filter constitution of sand or carbon allows
for more particles to chemically bond to the media, resulting in greater filter
performance and efficiency.

Water is generally directed through several stages carbon and multimedia filters
to ensure the removal of all unwanted materials. The first filtration stage will
remove the most concentrated chemicals, like chlorine, while subsequent stages
will remove smaller and more evasive chemicals, like pesticides.

Filtration - Pros and Cons

Filtration is the most effective type of water treatment and purification currently
available. Carbon and multimedia filters build upon the treatment capabilities of
reverse osmosis and distillation. They retain all of the good filtration qualities of
these two systems while efficiently removing additional water contaminants. They
are able to rid water of the larger compound materials, like salt, while selectively
removing much smaller and dangerous chemicals, like chlorine and pesticides,
that reverse osmosis and distillation systems cannot remove.

Because carbon and multimedia filters utilize both chemical and physical filtration
processes, they are able to selectively remove a large number of drinking water
contaminants. Water filters can remove the small, but dangerous pesticide and
herbicide chemicals while allowing larger, trace minerals to safely pass through
the filter with the water. The retention of trace minerals in water provides a much
healthier source of drinking water. The chemical adsorption process, which carbon
and multimedia filters use, is the only filtration process that can selectively filter
unwanted materials from water.

Also, the slow filtration process of carbon and multimedia filters does not require
costly energy sources like reverse osmosis and distillation systems. Because
carbon and multimedia filtration systems do not require a heat or pressure source,
they are fairly cost-effective. Carbon and multimedia water filters waste relatively
little water in the filtration process.

Filtration, like reverse osmosis and distillation, is a fairly slow process as it

requires several stages of water purification. Although the process is slow, once
the water has been through the required stages, it is freer from contaminants
than the water product of any other purification technique.

Besides the relatively slow process, there are a few other aspects to filtration that
may make it less than ideal. Depending upon the type of filter used, water may
have limited contact time with the filter media, resulting in only partial removal of
drinking water contaminants. Also the type of filter media may affect the number
of contaminants that can pass through the filtration process. Rapid filters and
granular filters are less effective than solid block carbon filters. Rapid filters allow
for only brief contact time with the filter media, limiting the amount of
contaminants that may be removed through the adsorption process. Granular
filters contain fairly large pores and allow several contaminants to pass through
the filter media. For the most reliable and efficient filtration, solid block carbon or
multimedia filters should be used.

What Chemicals do Filtration Processes Remove/Reduce?

Single media filters, typically constituting carbon or sand, absorb impurities from
water, through both physical and chemical processes, as the water passes
through the filter cartridge. Single media filters will generally remove undesirable
tastes, colors, and odors from water as well as such chemicals as hydrogen
sulfide, radon, chlorine, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, and
benzene (Ramstorp, 2003). Drinking water filters will also remove lead and other
chemicals transferred from plumbing systems to water. Filtration is the only water
purification process that will remove chlorine and chlorine byproducts from water.
It is also the only water purification process that reliably and completely removes
harmful pesticides from water. Single media filters will not remove mineral
compounds from water.

The true power of the filtration process lies in multimedia filtration technology. By
using multimedia filters, select minerals can be retained in water while more
harmful or useless minerals and chemicals can be removed. The magic of
multimedia filters lies in their use of chemical processes, as well as physical
processes for the removal of undesirable ground and surface water contents. As
more media elements are added to the filter cartridge, the filter is able to remove
more of the dangerous mineral contents. Multimedia filter cartridges can remove
such harmful mineral deposits and chemical additives as arsenic and fluoride from
drinking water. Though arsenic levels are generally low in most ground and
surface water, the mineral can be deadly. Fluoride, while useful in maintaining
healthy teeth, is a reactive and dangerous chemical that should be taken with
care.

Price Comparison - General Water Treatment Alternatives

There are two major factors involved when comparing prices among the three
modes of water purification. First, one must consider the energy needed to clean
and filter water. Reverse osmosis, with its dependence upon high pressure to
subvert the normal flow of water, requires an energy source and is fairly costly.
Distillation, with its dependence upon heat to vaporize ground and surface water,
also requires an energy source. Though solar power remains an option for the
required heat of distillation, it is still fairly inefficient and impractical. Carbon and
multimedia water filters, whether installed at the point of water’s entry in a house
or at a tap, do not require any added energy source. Water flows just as it
normally would; it is merely diverted through the filter. The higher electricity costs
of reverse osmosis and distillation systems double the total cost of the purified
water product which carbon and multimedia filters produce.
The second consideration one must take into account is the wastewater-to-
purified water ratio. Both reverse osmosis and distillation systems are extremely
wasteful and inefficient. They use large quantities of water to create a very small
amount of purified water. Typically with these systems, 75-80% of the water is
discarded with the contaminants. In a time when fresh water is scarce throughout
the planet, these statistics are simply unacceptable. Carbon water filters waste
very little of the water that flows through their systems. Due to the unique
chemical and physical processes of the filtration method, only the contaminants
are left behind on the filter cartridge.

When electricity use, wasted water, and replacement costs are factored into the
equation, water filters generally cost about $100 less per year than reverse
osmosis and distillation to generate the same amount of purified drinking water.

Softeners and Filters - How do they differ?

Technically, the term "water treatment" refers to any modifications made to raw
water (water from the original source, i.e. rivers, lakes, streams, etc.). Included
under the umbrella term "water treatment" are both water softeners and water
filters. For this reason, the functions of the two different technologies are often
seen as interchangeable. Water filters and softeners do, in fact, serve very
different purposes. The main goal of a water filter is to provide clean,
contaminant-free water for drinking and other purposes. The main goal of a water
softener is to remove "hardening" minerals like calcium and magnesium from the
water. Water softeners do not remove dangerous chemicals or bacteria.

Water is termed "hard" if it contains large amounts of dissolved calcium and

magnesium. Hard water causes two major problems. First, it can initiate scaling on
the inner surface of pipes, water heaters, and/or tea kettles. When scaling occurs,
the calcium and magnesium separate from the water and form a hard, thin layer
on the inside of such appliances, causing the appliances to clog and reducing their
ability to conduct heat. Second, hard water causes soap scum to build up on
dishes and tile. Hard water also reduces the soap’s ability to lather.

In order to remove calcium and magnesium from water, water softeners

chemically replace the calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions. Because
sodium does not separate and scale on pipes or react badly with soap, both
problems of hard water are solved. From a health perspective, calcium and
magnesium are better and healthier for our body systems than sodium. Water
filters will generally solve the same problems as water softeners, without adding
sodium to the water.

Purifiers and Filters - How do they differ?

There is some confusion in the water industry about the meanings and differences
between water purifiers and water filters. Many industries use the two terms
interchangeably to describe the same process, i.e. filtration. A technical definition
of pure water would refer to water containing only hydrogen and oxygen
molecules. Such "pure" water does not occur naturally in the world. All water
contains some impurities, or elements of different chemical compounds than
merely hydrogen and water (Binnie et al, 2002). As water passes through streams
and rivers, it carries mineral sediments with it. Ground water, the source for most
municipal water systems, contains remnants of pesticides, herbicides, and
industrial waste. Water generally carries several bacteria and viruses, as well.

The accepted definition of "pure" water for most water industries is water that is
free of bacterial components. The definition does not include chemical
contaminants. The EPA, also, has defined pure water as water free from all types
of bacteria and viruses. A water purification system, then, would remove all
bacterial components from water without attending to undesirable chemicals and
minerals.

Such a system is significantly different from a water filtration system. A water

filtration system is designed to remove unwanted chemicals and minerals, but it is
not recommended for the removal of bacteria and viruses. Practically every
municipal water system in the world implements water chlorination for this
purpose. Water that reaches a home’s plumbing system will already have been
disinfected through chlorination. Water filters then remove the chlorine and
chlorine resistant parasites like cryptosporidium and giardia.

References

Binnie, Chris, Kimber, Martin, & Smethurst, George. (2002). Basic water treatment
(3rd ed.). London: Thomas Telford Ltd.

Holland, F. A., Siqueiros, J., Santoyo, S., Heard C. L., & Santoyo, E. R. (1999). Water
purification using heat pumps. New York: Routledge.

Ramstorp, Matts. (2003). Contamination control in practice: Filtration and

sterilization. Weinheim, Sweden: Wiley-VCH.

Rona, Zolton P. and Martin, Jeanne Marie. (1995). Return to the Joy of Health.
Vancouver: Alive Books.

Vigneswaran, S. & Visvanathan, C. (1995). Water treatment processes: Simple

options. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.