Water Filtration And Purification

Most filters today are charcoal, or activated charcoal. Charcoal, which is mostly carbon, is the residue of partial burning or destructive distillation of organic material. When special heating or chemical processing is added to charcoal, it becomes much more absorptive, and is then referred to as “activated charcoal”. So a charcoal filter works on the principle of absorption. Large volumes of gases, including most poisonous ones, stick to the charcoal, which is quite porous. (That’s why it’s used in gas masks.) Because it has such a large porous surface area, it absorbs a lot of impurities. Charcoal filters are used in icemaker filters, under-counter filters, countertop filters, whole-house filters, and more. You get the message – charcoal really “takes out the garbage”. Another type of water filtration system available today is reverse osmosis. That’s the technical name for the process of water being pushed through an ultra-fine semi-permeable membrane, where it separates the tap liquid into the pure permeate which is diverted to a storage tank for later use; the brine concentrate is diverted down the drain. The water is stored in a pressure tank and is treated to a final activated-charcoal polishing filtration stage to remove all remaining odors and tastes before dispensing the purified water into your glass. The disadvantage of reverse osmosis systems is that they waste a lot of water – for every gallon of purified water produced, two gallons are wasted. Other types of water filters are ion exchange and distillation. Ion exchange is designed to remove dissolved salts in the water, such as calcium. This system actually softens the water or exchanges natural-forming mineral ions in the water with its own ions, thereby neutralizing their harmful effect of creating scale build-up. The ion exchange system was originally used in boilers and other industrial situations before becoming popular in home purifying units, which combine the system with carbon. Distillation is the simple process of boiling water to create steam. The steam cools and condenses to form pure mineral-free water droplets which are deposited in a container. When combined with carbon, the result is 99.9% pure contaminate-free water. These systems are extremely efficient and reliable, and are regarded today as one of the most effective ways to remove contaminates from any water, from any source.