Essay

INTRODUCTION
NEED OF WATER :
Water is an important and essential ingredient in our quest for survival on this planet. It is
very essential for carrying out various metabolic processes in our body and also to carry out
Hemoglobin throughout the body. A daily average of 1 gallon per man is sufficient for
drinking and cooking purposes.
● A horse, bullock, or mule drinks about 11 gallons at a time. Standing up, an average
allowance of 5 gallons should be given for a man, and 10 gallons for a horse or a
camel.
● An elephant drinks 25 gallons, each mule or ox drinks 6 to 8 gallons, each sheep or
pig 6 to 8 pints. These are minimum quantities.
In order to fulfill such a huge demand of water, it needs to be purified and supplied in a
orderly and systematic way. But with the increasing world population, the demand for
drinking water has also increased dramatically and therefore it is very essential to identify
resources of water from which we can use water for drinking purposes. Many available
resources of water do not have it in drinkable form. Either the water contains excess of
Calcium or Magnesium salts or any other organic impurity or it simply contains foreign
particles which make it unfit and unsafe for Drinking.
PURIFICATION OF WATER
● Boiling
● Filtration
● Bleaching Powder Treatment
● SODIS ( Solar water disinfection)
Boiling
Boiling is perhaps the most commonly used water purification technique today. While in
normal households it is an efficient technique; it cannot be used for industrial and large
scale purposes. It is because in normal households, the water to be purified is very small in
quantity and hence the water loss due to evaporation is almost negligible. But in industrial
or large scale purification of water the water loss due to evaporation will be quite high and
the amount of purified water obtained will be very less.
Filtration
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Filtration is also used for removing foreign particles from water. One major drawback of this
purification process is that it cannot be used for removing foreign chemicals and impurities
miscible in water.
SODIS
SODIS or Solar Water Disinfection is recommended by the United Nations for disinfecting of
water using soft drink bottles, sunlight, and a black surface- at least in hot nations with
regularly intense sunlight. Water-filled transparent bottles placed in a horizontal position
atop a flat surface in strong sunlight for around five hours will kill microbes in the water.
The process is made even more safe and effective if the bottom half of the bottle or the
surface it's lying on is blackened, and/or the flat surface are made of plastic or metal. It's the
combination of heat and ultraviolet light which kills the organisms. The major drawback of
this technique is that it cannot be used in countries with cold weather. Also, the time
consumed for purification process is more and it also needs a 'blackened' surface, much like
solar cooker.
NEED FOR A STABLE PURIFICATION TECHNIQUE

Therefore we need a purification technique which can be used anytime and anywhere, does
not require the use of any third party content and which is also economically feasible on
both normal scale and large scale. Hence we look at the method of purification of water
using the technique of treatment by bleaching powder commonly known as "Chlorination".
Bleaching powder treatment
Bleaching powder is added as part of the drinking water treatment process. However,
bleaching powder also reacts with the organic matter, naturally present in water, such as
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decaying leaves. This chemical reaction forms a group of chemicals known as disinfection
by-products. Although other disinfectants are available, bleaching powder remains the
choice of water treatment experts. When used with modern water filtration methods,
chlorine is effective against virtually all microorganisms. Bleaching powder is easy to apply
and small amounts of the chemical remain in the water as it travels in the distribution
system from the treatment plant to the consumer's tap, this level of effectiveness ensures
that microorganisms cannot re-contaminate the water after it leaves the treatment.
But what is bleaching powder and how is it prepared ?

Bleaching powder or Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula Ca(CIO). It
is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent bleaching powder). This
chemical is considered to be relatively stable and has greater available chlorine than
hypochlorite (liquid bleach).
Preparation of bleaching powder
• 2Ca(OH), + 2C1---> Ca(CIO), +CaCl₂ + 2 H₂O (Calcium process)
• 2Ca(OH), + 3Cl₂ + 2NaOH -----> Ca(CIO), +CaCl, + 2H₂O + 2NaCl (Sodium process)

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INTRODUCTION

NEED FOR A STABLE PURIFICATION TECHNIQUE

Bleaching powder treatment

But what is bleaching powder and how is it prepared ?

Preparation of bleaching powder

• 2Ca(OH), + 2C1---> Ca(CIO), +CaCl₂ + 2 H₂O (Calcium process)

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