Water Treatment Plant
Water Treatment is the process of taking raw water from natural sources such as river, canal, lake, reservoir and the sea and converting into water, which has required quality and quantity. The products from the process are portable water, desalination water and demineralised water for consumption, agriculture and industrial or factory located near the sea or area where water is expensive. Each type of water requires different technologies, which has different level of complexities. Water Treatment Plant can be divided as followings:
1.1 Portable Water Plant Portable Water Plant Process starts with taking raw water into production process to obtain portable water to use in consumption, agriculture and some industrials, which do not require high quality water. The Portable Water Plant Process is shown in the exhibit below.
Portable Water Plant Process
1. Intake raw water. This water still has high turbidity, solute and heavy metals.
2. Improve quality of raw water by adding alum or lime (Calcium Hydroxide) to assist sedimentation process and improve pH.
3. Sedimentation: Raw Water with alum or lime will flow into sediment tank for small sediments to combine into heavier sediments and sink to the bottom of the sediment tank. The water will have more clarity.
4. Filtration: The water from sedimentation process will pass through sand filter to separate fine particles.
5. Disinfection: Add chlorine and kept in storage for further distribution.
6. Quality check and control.
7. Distribute portable water from water tank or pressure portable water into pipeline system.
1.2 Demineralization Plant
Demineralization Plant is to filter solute, such as minerals, from portable water plant. This needs Ion Exchange technology, which is more complex than technology used in Portable Water Plant, to produce water at required purity level.
Demineralization Plant Process
1. Portable Water flows into mineral filtration process to separate small minerals by passing filtration process with membrane. The process has to starts with MF or UF and is followed by RO until the water has only Sodium Ion (Na+) and Chloride Ion (Cl-).
2. The water will flow to Ion Exchange Process in which Na+ and Cl- will be separated by Resin (Insoluble Polymer with ion exchange qualification), purifying water.
3. Quality check and quality control.
4. Store in the storage for further use.
The purified water has no benefit to body because all minerals are separated from the water. Hence, drinking water manufacturers add some beneficial minerals during production process to add value to drinking water (mineral water).