Types of Water Purification Systems
Purifying water is necessary where water may be contaminated. Contaminated water can cause a variety of illnesses in people who consume it. There are many ways to clean water, ranging from systems designed for removing contaminants from household water to those specialized for pharmacological or medical use. Water may be contaminated from bacteria in the air as well as bacteria from sewage in the ground.
Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis is one way of purifying water by applying pressure so that it passes it though a semi-permeable membrane. In this method, the water is passed through the membrane, but the pollutants in the water are trapped. They are trapped because they are unable to pass though the membrane due to their size. This is different from a filter which simply strains the pollution from the water based solely on size without regard to pressure. The reverse osmosis method of purifying water is commonly used in the purification of drinking water.
Other Methods
Other methods for purifying water include chemical purification using chemicals like chlorine, and the use of distillation which can get rid of 99.9% of the pollutants in water. Using ultraviolet light to disinfect the water is another way to get clean water though it is less effective than the other methods when there are a lot of solids in the water. Solids reduce the effectiveness of ultraviolet disinfection method because of the shadows cast by the suspended particles. Water purification systems may be used not only to provide safe drinking water, but also to remove elements in the water that may affect the taste.
Applications of different types of water purification systems
There are drinking water reverse osmosis systems that can be installed to clean a home’s main water supply, and there are smaller units meant to be installed under a sink. There are also shower and bath filters that can provide clean water for personal hygienic purposes. This is necessary because a person’s health can be affected by taking showers in polluted water as well as by drinking it.