THE WATER WE DRINK…

Distillation Process Defined

DISTILLERS RESEARCH TOPIC LINKS:
Impurities Removed by Distillation
Types Of Distillers and Equipment
(VOC’s) volatile organic compounds
Maintaining Your Water Distiller
Pricing, Purchase, Operational Costs
Advantages & Disadvantages
Pre-Purchase Considerations

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Distillation Process Defined

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And: Testing Your Water Supply

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Information On The Distillation Process: (How distillation works)

Natures Way To Water Purification Illustrated

Distillation is sometimes referred to as “natures universal solvent“. Hmm.. what does that mean? Well., as a former furniture refinisher, I can tell you that there are water based paints, and oil based paints. Which basically translates into.. “DONT TRY to clean a paint brush saturated in an oil based paint with warm soap and water!” Or visa virsa. If you do please have the common decency to use a nylon brush and at least know some poor critter didnt die for nothin! Because you’ll end up with a mess as bad as malto meal stuck to mashed potatoe’s! Try to get that off your Corderois. Ask any furniture restoration enthusiast about how nice it would be to have a UNIVERSAL SOLVENT? Even synthetics have not conquered that challenge. Yet, here nature has been doing a great job of consistantly cleansing and re-cleansing out atmosphere for, well, a long time!

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The Distillation Prossess

Distillers use heat to boil water into steam which is condensed back into water and collected in a purer form. When water boils, it leaves impurities behind in the boiling chamber. The rising steam passes into a cooling section and condenses back into a liquid. The condensed liquid (water) then flows into a storage container (Figure 1).

Distillers remove almost all of the impurities from water supplies. In fact, distillation is the only means of removing some contaminants. Water used in laboratory applications that require a purity level above 99.97% use steam distillation. (consumer brand distillers provide 99.95% to 99.97% purification) This applies only to “steam distillation”. Distillers using gravity, ceramic, and silver do not remove such contaminants without additional chemicals such as in the removal of soluable salts. As water is heated the impurities in the boiling chamber increase in concentration. The water left behind in the boiling chamber is discarded and the process is started over.

Household distillers are designed for providing water for drinking and cooking. Distillation is not economical to distill water for other uses like flushing toilets, bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning.

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References:

FS-5Drinking Water: Treatment Guidelines. University of Maryland Extension

9.729Drinking Water Treatment Devices: Distillers. Colorado State University Extension

HE-430HouseHold Water Treatment. North Dakota State University Extension

MWPS-14 Private Water Systems. Midwest Plan Service

Water Treatment Handbook. Rodale Testing

Funding for this publication was by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Extension Service, under project number 90-EWQI-19252.

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Russell Derickson, Extension Associate in Water and Natural Resources, South Dakota Extension Service Fred Bergsrud, Water Quality Coordinator, Minnesota Extension Service Bruce Seelig, Water Quality Specialist, North Dakota Extension Service