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ChlorinationandDechlorinationofWaterSystem
Effective concentration of chlorine and chlorination and dechlorination of water system using Sodium hypochlorite and Sodium metabisulfite.
Purified water is a basic requirement of any pharmaceutical industry. Generally the source of raw water remains a bore well and raw water is stored in a
storage tank. This raw water is stored for several days. These storage tanks are not cleaned for many days. Due to these situation problem of microbial
growth would occur in raw water storage tank and con contaminate the whole water system.
This is a common problem in pharmaceutical industries and generally solved by chlorination of the water storage tank. Sodium hypochlorite is used for
chlorination of water. When sodium hypochlorite is dissolved in water is gives free chlorine that forms hypochlorous acid which actively takes part in
disinfection process.

Cl2 + H2O HOCl + HCl

Chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent that oxidizes organic compounds effectively. Hypochlorous acid is neutrally charged molecule that easily penetrates
into the negatively charged pathogen cell wall and reacts with the lipids of cell wall and enzymes and proteins within the cytoplasm of cell making them
nonfunctional. Due to this the growth of organism is inhibited and organism dies or does not reproduce further.

Concentration of chlorine in water and contact time plays a significant role in water disinfection. A 5 ppm concentration of chlorine in water is effective. It
takes 1530 minutes to kill all the pathogens in water.

Quantity of Sodium hypochlorite to be added in water tank can be calculated by following formula:
Volume of sodium hypochlorite = Volume of water x required concentration in PPM
1000000 x %age of chlorine in Hypo

Example: 100000 x 5 = 500000 = 0.09 ltr

1000000 x 5.8 5800000

All molecules of added chlorine do not react with the organic matter of raw water but excess of the chlorine remains in water in active form. This active
chlorine is corrosive in nature and damages the RO membranes and ion exchange resins of water purification systems. Drinking water should not contain
more than three ppm of free chlorine. So removal of this chlorine is necessary before this water is treated by resins and reverse osmosis membranes.

There are various methods to remove the chlorine residues from the water before the water treatment. As far as ultra violet light also helps to remove the
chlorine but it does not seem too effective and needs chemical neutralization of chlorine also. Sodium thiosulfate and sodium metabisulphite are generally
used for this purpose. These methods can cause scaling in RO membranes thereafter efficiency of RO system can be reduced.

Sodium thiosulfate is found in the form of colorless crystals and reacts with chlorine as a reducing agent. Reaction of sodium thiosulfate with hypochlorous
acid produces sodium sulfate and hydrochloric acid.
Na2S2O3 + 4HOCl + H2O 2NaHSO4 + 4HCl
The required amount of sodium thiosulfate may vary according to the pH of the water.

Sodium metabisulphite is a widely used white powder for the removal of chlorine from water system. It produces sodium bisulfate and hydrochloric acid
with the reaction of hypochlorous acid.
Na2S2O5 + 2HOCl + H2O 2NaHSO4 + 2HCl
The required amount of the sodium metabisulfite can be calculated. Approximately 1.34 ppm of sodium metabisulfite is required to neutralize the 1 ppm of
free chlorine.

Therefore the chlorination and dechlorination both are essential part of water purification system and both of these should be done effectively during the
water purification. Dechlorination by ultraviolet light is safer because it does not create the dechlorination byproducts, those are harmful for human. But
due to more practical approaches, dechlorination by chemical methods is being done widely in pharmaceutical industries.

Also see: Purified Water System Validation

Ankur Choudhary is India's first professional pharmaceutical blogger, author and founder of Pharmaceutical Guidelines, a widelyread pharmaceutical
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