Distilled water is purified through a process called distillation, which effectively removes impurities by simulating the natural water cycle.
Understanding the Distillation Process
As stated in the provided reference, distilled water has gone through the process of distillation to remove impurities. This method relies on the fact that water evaporates at a lower temperature than many common contaminants like minerals, salts, and bacteria.
The core steps involved in distillation are:
- Boiling: The water is heated to its boiling point.
- Evaporation: As the water boils, it turns into steam (water vapor). Most impurities are left behind in the boiling chamber because they do not evaporate with the water.
- Condensation: The steam is collected and then cooled.
- Collection: As the steam cools, it returns to its liquid state – this is the purified, distilled water.
The reference specifically highlights that distillation involves boiling water and collecting the steam, which returns to water upon cooling. This collected water is significantly purer than the original source water because the non-volatile contaminants were left behind during the evaporation phase.
Why Distillation?
Distillation is a highly effective method for removing:
- Dissolved minerals (like calcium, magnesium, sodium)
- Salts
- Heavy metals
- Bacteria and viruses
- Some organic compounds
However, it may not effectively remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can evaporate at similar temperatures to water. For certain applications requiring extreme purity, distillation might be combined with other purification methods.
Steps of Distillation Explained
Let's break down the process into simple steps:
- Step 1: Heating
- Raw water (containing impurities) is placed in a still or boiling chamber.
- Heat is applied, bringing the water to a boil.
- Step 2: Vaporization
- The water turns into steam, leaving most contaminants behind.
- This steam rises, moving away from the source water.
- Step 3: Cooling
- The steam enters a cooling section (often a condenser) where its temperature is significantly reduced.
- Cooling causes the steam to condense back into liquid water.
- Step 4: Collection
- The condensed water is collected in a separate container.
- This collected liquid is distilled water.
This process ensures that only the water molecules that evaporated and re-condensed are captured, leaving the dissolved solids and other non-volatile impurities behind in the original container.
