Wastewater Treatment:

Water Softening
(Pelunakan Air)
(Ref: Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse, Metcalf and Eddy, 4th
ed., Mc. Graw Hill Book Inc., New York 2003, pp.1138-1157).

Agus Prasetya, PhD.

S1 & MTPPL JTK-FT UGM
MTPB SPs UGM
S1 & MPAAL JTSL FT UGM
MTS FT UGM

Consequences
(possible
problems):
Scaling,
Fouling
Corrosion
Carryover of
volatile
minerals
Microbial
contamination.

Important
Parameters:
pH
Hardness
O2 and CO2
concentration
Silicates
Dissolved solids
Suspended solids
Organics
concentration

HARDNESS OF WATER:
It is a measure of wettability of water. Hard water contains high
concentration of mineral ions, e.g. Ca2+ , Mg2+ in the form of dissolved
dissociated salts.
The concentration of these ions is relatively low, but affect the quality
of water (in industry, particularly boiler feed water) greatly.
Total Hardness:
Show the amount of ions of Ca, Mg, Fe, Al and other minerals and
organic acid in the water, which reduce wettability of water.

DEGREE OF HARDNESS
Classification Total ion concentration, in
[mg/L] or (ppm)
Soft
< 50

Moderate
Hard

50 - 150
150 300

Very hard

> 300

FOULING:
Occurs if solid matters in water deposited on the surface of
equipment.
Solids matters enter the equipment through suspended solids in
water, from various sources, e.g. sludge, colloids

SCALING:
Occurs due to deposition of minerals in the water. The most
common scale are: CaCO3, CaSO4 and silicate.
The scale on the surface will harden by time and become difficult to
be cleaned.
The presence of scale will reduce the heat transfer capacity and
decrease the energy efficiency of the system.

CORROSION:
Electro-chemical corrosion on metals occurs due to the presence of
ions (because of low pH) or dissolved oxygen in the water. Other type
of corrosions may occurs due to mineral deposition (under deposit
corrosion), electrolysis and microorganism activity.
Corrosion reduced the life-time of equipment drastically.

MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION:
Microbia, such as algae, fungi and bacteria create some operational
problems, e.g. plugging, fouling (that can be followed by under
deposit corrosion) and wood-component degradation.

ION EXCHANGE

ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS

Natural (and some can be synthesized):
Zeolites (a complex aluminosilicate materials and sodium/Na
ions) water softening and NH4OH removal.
Synthetic: Resin or phenolic polymer

SYNTHETIC RESIN

ION EXCHANGE REACTIONS

ION EXCHANGE REACTIONS

For SYNTHETIC RESIN

ION EXCHANGE APPLICATIONS

NITROGEN (i.e. AMMONIUM and NITRATE) CONTROL

ION EXCHANGE APPLICATIONS

REMOVAL of HARDNESS (MINERALS ION, HEAVY METALS and
DISSOLVED SOLID)

Disinfection
All of the previous treatment processes remove > 90% of
bacteria and viruses
A disinfectant is used to:
Kill microbes fast and efficiently
Not kill humans or other animals
Last long enough to prevent regrowth in distributions systems
Factors that inhibit disinfection:
Turbidity: particles shelter bacteria
Resistant organisms
Fe+2 and Mn+2: form particles that shield bacteria

Oxidizable compounds: become food for microbes in distribution

system
Commonly used disinfectants:
Chlorine; Chlorine Dioxide; Chloramines
Ozone; UV light