Despite 70% of Earth being covered by water, only 3% of the water is available as fresh drinkable water. Approximately two-thirds of the earth’s freshwater is held up in humongous glaziers or inaccessible. This has subjected an estimated 1.1 billion people to prolonged and severe freshwater scarcity.
Additionally, approximately 2.7 billion people across the globe have to endure freshwater undersupply for a month or more every year. An additional 2.4 billion persons are forced to consume contaminated water, which exposes them to waterborne illnesses such as cholera and typhoid.
Over the last few decades, multiple remedies have been trialed but water purification has proven to be the most feasible. At present, there are millions of households, industries, and commercial enterprises reliant on water purification equipment. The number continues to grow considerably as the cost of purchasing and operating equipment lessens.
What Do Water Purification Equipment Offer?
Principally, water purification systems offer fresh, uncontaminated water, which is requisite for human life, business operations, and industrial processes. Since their inception, water purifiers have gone from strength to strength, with contemporary purifiers being high-yielding, cost-efficient, and easy to use. Beneath, we look at the varying rewards offered by modern-day water purification equipment.
• High-quality Purified Water.
Fresh water is one of the world’s most treasurable resources and without it, life on earth would be untenable. Given that at least 2 billion people spread out across the world reside in regions with stark freshwater insufficiency, the value of water purification equipment cannot be understated.
Purified water systems provide an efficient and effective way of converting 70% of dirty and polluted water reserved in oceans and underground reservoirs into tenable fresh water. They eliminate objectionable constituents such as dissolved salts, viruses, and bacteria consequently generating purified water fit for human consumption, industrial use, and commercial use.
• Dynamism in Impurity Removal.
According to the WHO, an estimated 2.4 billion people draw their daily usage of water from contaminated sources. These sources could be the oceans, lakes, rivers, boreholes, or even taps and harbored pollutants may include illness-causing microbes, hardness minerals, dissolved salts, and volatile chemicals.
The repercussions of waterborne pollutants spread beyond stark health conditions. Hardness-causing minerals, for instance, may cause corrosion, spotting, and destruction of domestic appliances. However, with a reliable water purifier, these aggressive and dangerous impurities are eradicated before they can cause any harm.
• Environmental Conservation.
Water purification systems help conserve the environment in a number of ways. First, wastewater treatment systems, get rid of volatile pollutants from wastewater before it is discarded in landfills or nearby waterbodies. The effluent emitted by wastewater treatment systems meets the existing effluent quality threshold and does not pose a threat to the surrounding ecosystem and its inherent inhabitants.
Secondly, water purifiers help preserve natural freshwater reservoirs by providing alternative sources of pure water. This reduces the stress placed on natural water resources thereby averting overexploitation.
Thirdly, solar water purifiers play a pivotal role in combating adverse climate change. They utilize a renewable and eco-friendly source of energy_the sun, as opposed to fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
• Impeccable Purification Rates.
Ultra-modern water purification systems are extremely effective in eradicating the respective impurities they are designed to eradicate. They are primarily manufactured to eliminate specific impurities and they do exactly that at an impeccable rate. Seawater purification systems such as reverse osmosis desalination units eliminate 90-99.7% of dissolved salts to generate fresh water with a maximum TDS score of 1000ppm.
Typical UV water sterilizers destroy 99.99% of viruses, bacteria, and other microbial pollutants using ultraviolet radiation. However, impeccable purification rates are only attainable when the purifier is deployed appropriately and serviced regularly.
Contemporary Water Purification Technologies.
With more people having to rely on water purification systems, innovators are continually advancing existing purification technologies. Presently, there are over 10 well-renowned water purification mechanisms helping billions of people fight freshwater undersupply. Here is a brief description of today’s most effective and efficient water purification technologies.
• Reverse Osmosis Water Purification.
Reverse osmosis is without a doubt one of the most prominent and effective water purification technologies at present. It is a dynamic process that extracts a myriad of distinct pollutants at exceptional rates. It is defined as a power-dependent purification process that forces the alienation of objectionable impurities from water using pressure and partially porous membranes.
Pressure is pivotal in reverse osmosis and it is applied to the feed water. This overpowers the natural osmotic pressure subsequently reversing the flow of water. Impurities denied passage by the semi-permeable membranes are left as a residue referred to as brine while purified water is collected as permeate.
• Deionization.
Deionization is a distinct and highly effective water purification process that extracts undesirable ions by replacing them with non-objectionable ions. Deionization water purification systems utilize ion exchange technology to eliminate objectionable mineral ions. This technology is commonly used in water softening, demineralization, and de-alkalization. Deionization can be accomplished using either;
- Mixed-bed deionizers.
- Two-bed deionizers.
• Electrodeionization.
Electrodeionization is a complex and high-yielding water purification process that applies direct current to eradicate ionized impurities using ion exchange resins and membranes. Regeneration in EDI water purification systems is power-driven and does not necessitate the use of chemicals. This makes it environmentally friendly and relatively cheaper. Electrodeionization can generate high-purity water with a resistivity of 18.3 Megaohms.
• Distillation.
Distillation is a purification technique that has long existed. It is comparable to the natural process of rain formation since it involves evaporation and condensation. The impure water (feed water) is heated uniformly until evaporation is invoked. The resulting vapor is then chilled in a condenser and harvested as purified water. Impurities such as dissolved salts, colloids, inorganics, and microbes are left as a residue in the evaporator.
Other water purification technologies worth a mention are;
- Ultrafiltration.
- Microfiltration.
- Nanofiltration.
- Ultraviolet sterilization.
- Filtration.
- Coagulation and flocculation etc.
Emerging Trends in Water Purification Technologies and Equipment.
We presently live in a world driven by constant innovations and water purification technologies are no different. Technological breakthroughs continue to be made and this brings about a number of rewards. For instance, recent strides made in energy recovery technologies have rewarded us with more power-efficient water purification equipment. Here are some of the additional emerging trends making water purification more affordable, effective, and efficient.
• More Compact Purification Equipment.
Astronomical prices for properties and population growth are limiting the spaces people have to live in or run businesses. This means that there are no spare storage spaces for essential appliances. However, proactive manufacturers of water purification systems such as NEWater, are developing small-sized purifiers that are more economical on space. These units are also easy to transport, install and operate.
• Re-mineralization.
Certain purification technologies such as demineralization and reverse osmosis, eliminate vital minerals from drinking water. Consumption of demineralized water does not have immediate health implications but over time one may develop dietary deficiency disorders.
To avert this, drinking water purification processes have been tweaked a little bit to accommodate the re-mineralization process. This post-treatment process simply adds back essential minerals such as magnesium and calcium to deliver safe and healthy drinking water.
• High Demand for UV Water Sterilization Equipment.
The World Health Organization reports that one in three people have no access to clean drinking water and that over 3.4 billion lives are lost to waterborne illnesses. To curb the transmission of these diseases and avert consequential causalities, most households are now installing UV water sterilizers.
Commercial enterprises, municipalities, and industries reliant on purified water are also ditching chlorination for UV water sterilizers. This is chiefly because the systems are now cheaper, more effective, and hardly alter the water’s taste/odor.
• Automatic Water Quality Monitors.
Present-day water purification devices are fitted with high-quality monitors that display real-time data regarding the purified water. These monitors display definitive parameters that depict the quality of water, for example, the water’s conductivity, resistivity, and microbial count.
In addition, these automatic screens monitor water levels and daily consumption rates. For users, this saves time and makes their user experience stress-free. In the near future, it is expected that there will be more advanced water purifiers capable of monitoring even more parameters.
Conclusion.
In the last five decades, water scarcity has been a real menace to the human population. However, with the introduction of water purification systems, the pangs of fresh water shortage have been quelled considerably. Water Purifiers have been very effective and it is now estimated that 30% of households across the globe rely on water purification equipment.
The progress made so far has been impressive and the onus is now on manufacturers to keep innovating and gratifying the buyer’s demands. NEWater is a proactive and customer-centric manufacturer of water purification equipment renowned for being an industry leader. If you have any related queries, kindly contact our customer support.