2 replies to this topic

[Gowrisankar]

I am trying to work out a cost effective yet robust method to address drinking water treatment for residential flats.
Say, the issue could be some or all of (a)Suspended particles (likely to sediment, but could be fine to microfine), (b)Dissolved solids (temporary as well as permanent hardness), © Dissolved organic gases (odour and/or avoidable to repulsive tastes).
Can some body throw light on simple methods to overcome some of the above forms of water contamination? Commercially available filters & treatment systems are OK, but what exactly needs to be done for each of these cases?
What exact solutions and treatments are available and recommended? If possible some cost info too ?
thanks.

[ShaunHill]

There are plenty of commercially available filters that take care of the issues that you discuss. The one I'm more familliar with is the Britta filter. The filter contains ion exchange beads and an activated carbon filter.
The ion exchange beads are a scaled down version of the industrial process. They will remove disolved minerals (hardness).
The activated carbon filter will remove "skunky" smells and tastes from organic material (often rotting algea).
Any filter will remove particulates, however if you have a lot of particulates in your water you could put a cheaper filter upstream to extend the life of the Britta filter.

The only significant cost is the cost of replacing the filter cartiges. If you wanted, you could try to regenerate the cartriges using the kind of processes they use in industrial water treatment, but I'm not sure how well this would scale down for residential use.

Basically an acid wash will regenerate the activated carbon. You might be able to use vinegar for this at home, but I've never tried that.

The ion ecxhange beads need to be regerated with acid and caustic. Acid will strip off the Anions and caustic will remove the cations.

However, having said all that, I would not recommend people normally regenerating these filters at home.
If your only treating drinking water (as opposed to all the water) its not that expensive to replace the filter once a month.

[rajeevd]

I have heard of this technology, but dont know the resources to guide you to. Some places also use trickling bio-filters for this application.