Calculations of The Requirement of Lime and Soda

Rules for solving numerical problems on lime-soda requirements for softening of hard water:
1. The units in which the impurities are analyzed and expressed are to be noted.

2. Substances which do not contribute towards hardness (KCl, NaCl, SiO2, Na2SO4 etc.) should be
ignored and explicitly stated.

3. A substances causing "hardness should be converted into their respective CaCO3 equivalents.

CaCO3 equivalent of hardness causing impurity.

= 100  wt. of the impurity/2  chemical equivalent of impurity

= Multiplication factor  wt. of impurity

Salt Molecular Chemical Multiplication

weight equivalent Factor
Ca(HCO3)2 162 81 100/162
Mg(HCO3)2 146 73 100/146
CaSO4 136 68 100/136
CaCl2 111 55·5 100/111
MgSO4 120 60 100/120
MgCl2 95 47·5 100/95
CaCO3 100 50 100/100
MgCO3 84 42 100/84
CO2 44 22 100/44
Mg(NO3)2 148 74 100/148
HCO3 61 61 100/122
OH 41 17 100/34
CO23 60 30 100/60
NaAlO2 82 82 100/164
Al2(SO4)3 342 57 100/114
FeSO4.7H2O 278 139 100/278
H+ 1 1 100/2
HCl 36·5 36·5 100/73

4. If the impurities are given as CaCO3 or MgCO3, these should be considered due to Ca(HCO3)2 and
Mg(HCO3)2 respectively and they must only be expressed in terms of CaCO3 and MgCO3.

5. The amount expressed as CaCO3 does not require any further conversion. However, the amount
expressed as MgCO3 should be converted into its CaCO3 equivalents by multiplying with 100/84.

6. The amount of lime and soda required are calculated as follows.

Lime = (74/100) {temporary calcium hardness + (2 × temporary magnesium hardness)

+ Perm Mg hardness + CO2 + HCl + H2SO4 + HCO–3 + salts of Fe2+, Al3+ – NaAlO2)

Soda = (106/100) {Perm Ca hardness + Perm Mg hardness + salts of Fe2+, Al3+ + HCl + H2SO4

+ HCO–3 + –NaAlO2}

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7. If Ca2+ and Mg2+ is given, 1 equivalent of lime and 1 equivalent of soda is required for Mg2+ whereas
1 equivalent of soda is required for Ca2+. The ions Ca2+ and Mg2+ are treated as permanent
hardness due to Ca and Mg.

8. If the lime and soda used are impure and if the percentage purity is given, then the actual
requirements of the chemicals should be calculated accordingly. Thus, if lime is 90% pure, then
the value obtained in step (6) must be multiplied by 100/90 to get actual lime requirement.
Similarly, if the soda is 95% pure then the value obtained in step (6) is multiplied by 100/95 to get
actual soda requirement.

9. The value obtained in step (6) is also multiplied by the volume of water which has to be purified.

Thus the final formula for calculating the amount of lime or soda required is given as

Lime = (74/100) {temporary calcium hardness + (2  temporary magnesium hardness)

+ Perm Mg hardness + CO2 + HCl + H2SO4 + HCO–3

+ salts of 100 Fe2+, Al3+ – NaAlO2}  100/% purity  volume of water

Soda = (106/100) {Perm Ca hardness + Perm Mg hardness + salts of Fe2+, Al3+ + HCl + H2SO4

– HCO–3 – NaAlO2}  100/% purity  volume of water.