Methods to Reduce TDS in Water

Understanding total dissolved solids (TDS) in water is crucial in maintaining your health. Drinking water with high levels of TDS may result in various adverse health conditions, such as gastrointestinal illnesses, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Reducing TDS to permissible levels is just as important in various industrial applications where contaminants may lead to ineffective products. Here are some methods for reducing TDS in water.

 

Distillation

Contaminants like chemicals and microorganisms are too tiny to extract from a solution. However, they’re not as light as water molecules to be able to evaporate when heated. This is the basis of the principle of distillation. While contaminants cannot be extracted from the solution, it’s possible to extract water molecules through evaporation. The evaporated water is then caught and condensed in a separate container from the contaminants left behind.

Reverse Osmosis

There’s a natural pressure that allows water from a solution with low amount of solute to move toward a solution with high amount of solute. To push back the water transferred through osmotic pressure, a greater reverse pressure is applied through a semipermeable membrane to trap the solute while only pure water is pushed across.

Deionization

Reverse osmosis is generally designed to eliminate large particles, microorganisms, and nonionic organic contaminants. Ionic compounds do not not get trapped in the semipermeable membrane, and this is where deionization becomes helpful. This is the process of catching ionized particles and releasing their hydrogen components to produce pure water.