What is Water Softening?
Techniques of water softening inculcate the process of removing magnesium and calcium ions from water. The process helps us to get rid of the problems brought about by hard water. There are different efficient methods used to carry out this process.
Types of Water Softening Techniques
Ion Exchange
Ion exchange is the oldest and most common method of water softening. Generally, it entails exchanging the magnesium and calcium ion contained in hard water for sodium ions. Since each calcium and magnesium ion has a positive charge of 2, each ion is exchanged for two sodium ions.
The sodium ions mostly come from a brine solution, with the displacement of sodium taking place due to the more powerful charge of magnesium and calcium. The exchange therefore frees water of free magnesium and calcium ions, making the water soft.
Distillation
This is where water is heated inside a container till vaporisation starts. This vapour is then fed to a container with a cooling unit, through a tube. The vapour then condenses, changing back into its liquid state, water. This distillate is usually pure of all impurities, not only minerals.
Though cheap, it’s only used for the production soft water that is only needed in low quantities, especially for drinking and cooking purposes. It is also a method of water purification.
It however produces water that lacks even the essential minerals needed for the body, and therefore is not advisable for drinking every day. Alkaline filters can however be used to re-mineralize the water, before putting it in office water coolers.
Reverse Osmosis
This is an effective method for both water purification and water softening. It uses a number of stages to produce highly purified water. Calcium and magnesium ions are eliminated at the reverse osmosis membrane chamber where a pressure of about 35 psi is applied. Only water molecules are able to pass and therefore the product is usually softened water. The unwanted water is usually piped out to the drainage and then the softened water can be directed to filtered water coolers.
