It is not so easy to find clean and safe drinking water for you and your family members. Lately, there are many contaminants found in the water which can be due to industrial waste and other pollutants. If you are looking at these risk factors, it has become a challenging task for consumers to find a healthy way of consuming drinking water. When the water purifiers were invented, it has become a life savior for many. It is important to understand what a water purifier is and the history behind it.
There are several cases of the huge amount of contaminants found in the water. It is also accompanied by the presence of salts and harmful microorganisms. But the challenging task was to filter out the good elements and bad elements. As water has several minerals and vitamins which are much required for a body. And due to the purification process, there is a loss of the bad and good elements.
With the help of a water purifier, it helps in answering out all the concerns. Because of the platform in which the water purifiers have been developed, the systems understand what are the good elements and which are the bad ones. It has a mechanism that filters out bad elements and purifies the water that is required for the human body.
Let us now understand the meaning of water purifiers and how the system works.
What is a water purifier?
The water purifier is a system through which you get clean and safe purified water that is ideal for consumption. They work on the mechanism of electrical and mechanical depending on the type of water purifier. It eliminates all the harmful contaminants by water purification technology. This helps in reducing water-borne diseases and creates hassle-free free water drinking purposes.
There are several types and technologies that the water purifier has been developed for. Depending upon the scenario and the cause, consumers need to look forward to obtaining a water purification system for their homes. Some of the common technologies that you find in water purifiers are traditional which is mechanical based and electrical that is based on water purification technology.
The electrical-based water purification systems are reverse osmosis water filtration, ultrafiltration technique, ultraviolet filtration method, and other such types. Each system has its own role in eliminating these contaminants and producing pure water. And these water purification systems are commonly found in the market.
History of water purifier
If we look at the history of water purifiers which is the traditional method, there were three types of purification. The first method was in purifying water by the use of chlorine. And the second method was by purifying the water using chlorine liquid. The third method was using the sand filter. These were some of the most popular utilized techniques in the traditional method of water purifiers.
Usage of chlorine to purify water
The chlorine liquid water purification method is also known as chlorination is so simple that you had to just add a few drops of chlorine to the water. The chlorine contains hydrochloric acid which is the best element in removing all the harmful microorganisms. But the problem with using this filtration technique was the side effects. Chlorine is an untreated chemical element that can prove harmful to the human body.
This dates back to the 1800s where people used to consume sewage water and suffer from harmful diseases like typhoid and cholera. When there was a huge outbreak of an epidemic, the scientist John Snow was one of the first people to use chlorine in eliminating harmful microorganisms from water.
The technique was then improvised by using liquefied chlorine gas which was installed in a system to treat the water. This was one of the standard techniques of water purification in 1900. Now it has become the standardized rule for every City Municipal Corporation to use this system across the globe.
Boiling the water
Boiling the water and then consuming it was also the safest way in water consumption. As the water is heated at a high temperature, this temperature is enough to kill all the harmful contaminants from the water. This ensures that the water is free from germs and safe to consume.
To ensure the utmost safety of the water, people started to use cotton clothes in filtering them out the water while pouring them into a tumbler or a utensil. They also used other filtration types to make double sure that boiled water is safe for consumption.
Sand filter technique
This was one of the first water purification techniques that were used in the early 1800. It was practised by John Gibb in Scotland to see that the untreated water has been properly filtered. After a few decades, the filtration technique improved and it was commonly used across the United Kingdom.
This sand filtration technique has been passed through various evaluations by the authorities. They also introduced an automatic pressure filter to increase filtration volume and decrease the time for better accessibility.
How does the water purifier work?
The modern-day water purifier that is available in the market comes with various technologies. These technologies ensure that the water is free from harmful contaminants and pure. There are basically three systems of the water purification process.
Pre-filtration of water
The pre-filtration phase is one of the most commonly found stages in every type of water purifier. It is basically the process of water that is passing through the machine. The source of water is connected to the tap and water is flown through the line valve.
When the water is passing through the line valve, reverse osmosis filtration techniques play an active part. It helps in eliminating all the dirt particles and other harmful sediments. This system also protects the other filter membranes from any external or internal damage.
Active filtration
Depending on the type of technology of the water purifier, the active filtration technique takes place. Whether the goal of the water purifier is to eliminate the tiniest microorganisms or filter them to the maximum level. The active filtration ensures that there is no presence of suspended particles and other viruses in the water.
Post filtration technique
The post-filtration technique was majorly involved in retaining all the essential nutrients and minerals from water. As water purification eliminates harmful microorganisms as well as minerals, the post-filtration technique ensures that the required elements are not lost.
This method also ensures that if there are any bad odours, it completely eliminates this at the last phase. It also ensures that all the required elements are treated and exerted from the drain line.
Which are the major sources of water used for purification?
There are several sources of water used for purification, they are groundwater, rain harvested water, lakes and river water.
One of the most commonly utilized sources is groundwater. These are the sources found in residential apartments and commercial buildings. The groundwater is largely used by water purification in cleaning and filtering for safe consumption. The main technology that takes place in this process is reverse osmosis.
Lake and river water is usually found in residential houses. They are connected with the help of local Municipal authorities and are billed by the metered usage. Depending on the area of the residential location, the nearest lake or river water is connected for distribution.
The harvesting of rainwater is a system being implemented in residential apartments nowadays. As everyone is finding it challenging to obtain groundwater since the water depletion rate is enormous. This is the reason they have introduced a rainwater harvesting system. Few local governing bodies are making this mandatory for apartments.
Conclusion
The water purifier system has become hard to live without. As the whole and sole responsibility of a water purifier is to get clean and safe water to drink. The water purifier has become an essential need.
The purification system works in the process of eliminating water-borne diseases and ensures that the filtered water is safe for consumption. All credit goes to the technology in which these purifiers are developed. This has made it so convenient for consumers that they can shop for water purifiers based on their budget, colour, feature and shapes.
I hope that you are now aware of what is a water purifier, you might be interested to read further about how does a water purifier works?