There are many ways to purify water, each serving a purpose according to the need for it. Onboard a ship at sea, for example, seawater may be taken from the ocean and simply desalinated for laundering, while a more elaborate and thorough purification process is used for use in the galley for cooking and to serve as drinking water.
When it comes to drinking water, the need for a pure water source has been known for millennia. Ancient Egyptians, dating as far back as 2,000 B.C., purified water by heating it to a boil or dipping heated irons into it. While the Egyptians caught on relatively early, other civilizations were focusing more on appearance and taste.
Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine and after whom the Hippocratic Oath is named, began experimenting with water filtration around the 5th century B.C.
As we approach modern times, more elaborate methods for filtering water evolved. Methods of desalination were also developed to remove salt from sea water and thereby make it drinkable. Sand was used as an early filament for desalination.
Municipal treatment plants first began getting installed in 19th-century Scotland, and later London. These used the then common sand filtration methods as well as gravel.
In the late 19th century, charcoal filters had been developed which improved both the odor and taste of water over traditional sand filtration. Later came chemical disinfecting such as chlorination.
As a link between health and pure water came to be understood, water purification grew to become a large commercial industry. Today, municipal water treatment plants filter and treat water with chlorination. Many corporations also offer home filtration to remove the many elements that municipal filtration leaves behind, as well as removing the chlorine and thereby improve the taste.
Other modern techniques include ultraviolet (UV) radiation, reverse osmosis, and distilling. Distilling is the boiling of water and forcing water vapor through a tube and back into another container, leaving behind impurities.
Reverse osmosis forces water under pressure through a membrane for a very high level of filtration. Reverse osmosis filtration is often a final filtration step in many. UV radiation is sometimes used as a final step, after several stages of filtration, to kill bacteria and other living organisms.
Effective water treatment and purification has become a worldwide effort as around one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. Since bringing water treatment to poor countries is generally not profitable, the task has been taken up by charitable organizations and sometimes private contributors.
Author Resource:-
Crane Environmental (http://cranenv.com) offers water purification systems around the world, especially water treatment for Caribbean regions. Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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