Module I

Methods of Softening of Water

Need for water softening
• Water to be used for industrial purpose should be sufficiently pure.

• Presence of hardness causing ions in water leads to several

disadvantages.

• Process of removing the hardness causing ions from water is called

water softening.

• Most commonly used water softening methods are:

a) Preboiling of water
b) Lime soda process
c) Zeolite or Permutit process
d) Phosphate treatment
e) Ion exchange process
Preboiling of water
• Generally water feed to boilers is passed through heat exchanger and
it is preboiled.

• During preboiling the dissolved gases are removed.

• Bicarbonates of Ca and Mg causing temporary hardness are

decomposed to insoluble carbonates and removed by water.
Lime – Soda Process
• Most commonly used water softening method.

• In this method, all soluble hardness causing impurities are chemically

converted into insoluble precipitate which can be removed by settling
or filtration.

• Hard water is treated with calculated quantities of slaked lime Ca(OH)2

and soda ash Na2CO3 in reaction tanks provided with stirrer. A slight
excess of lime and soda ash are mixed for fast reaction. The
chemicals and water are mixed using stirrer.
Water gets softened and the precipitates of calcium carbonate
(CaCO3) and magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) settle down as sludge
at the bottom of the tank. To remove the suspended particles, water is
filtered.
Lime – Soda Process
• Chemical reactions taking part in lime soda process are as follows:
Lime – Soda Process
Lime – Soda Process
• Reaction of lime with Ca and Mg salts are slow. Reactions produce
very fine particles which require sufficient time to settle down.

• Coagulating reagents like sodium aluminate or alum are used to

coagulate the precipitates at a faster rate.

• Lime soda process does not introduce new soluble salts to water. It is
best suited to treat both types of hardness especially temporary
hardness.

• Softening of water using lime soda process can be carried either in

cold or hot.
Cold Lime soda process
• In this method, a calculated quantity of lime and soda ash are mixed
with water at room temperature.

• At this temperature, the precipitates formed are very fine and require
more time for settling which may be about 24 hours. Also it is not
possible to remove the fine precipitates by filtration.

• Some coagulants like alum or sodium aluminate or aluminium

sulphate are added to water. These coagulants hydrolyze to flocculent,
gelatinous precipitate of Al(OH)3 which bring together fine precipitate
particles.

• Use of sodium aluminate as coagulating agent removes silica & oil

present in water.
Cold Lime soda process
• Batch process:
Cold Lime soda process
• Batch process:

• It is an intermittent process. It consists of at least two tanks used

alternately for softening of water. Each tank is provided with inlets for
raw water, inlets for chemicals, outlet for soft water and sludge outlet
along with a mechanical stirrer.
Cold Lime soda process
• Conventional type continuous process:
Cold Lime soda process
• Continuous process:

• Raw water and calculated quantities of chemicals are continuously

feed from the top into an inner chamber of vertical circular tank
provided with a paddle stirrer.

• Raw water and chemicals flowing down the chamber come into close
contact because of continuous stirring and the chemical reaction takes
place to soften the water.
The sludge formed settles down to the bottom of the outer chamber
from where it is removed through sludge outlet. The softened water
rising up passes through the fiber filter which removes traces of sludge
and filtered soft water passes through the outlet.

Soft water obtained from cold lime soda process still contains 50 – 60
ppm of residual hardness.
Hot Lime soda process
Hot Lime soda process
• In this process, raw water is treated with softening chemicals at a
temperature of 80 oC to 100 oC. At this temperature, the chemical
reactions are mush faster than in cold process.

• Hot lime soda softeners are much faster in operation and require less
storage capacity tank. Elevated temperatures accelerates the rate of
actual chemical reaction, increases the rate of aggregation of particles
and reduces the viscosity of water. Thus rate of settling and filtration is
increased.

• The sludge formed settles down rapidly and hence there is no need of
adding coagulating agents. In this process, the dissolved gases are
driven out due to high temperature treatment

• The water softened by hot lime soda process contains residual

hardness of 15 – 30 ppm
Advantages of Lime soda process
• Very Economical.

• Process increases pH value which reduces the corrosion of tanks and

pipe lines.

• Removes dissolved salt and gases along with hardness.

• Does not introduce any new salts to water.

• Can be used with lower quantity of coagulants as required.

Zeolite or Permutit process
• Zeolite is used to refer certain group of naturally occurring minerals
which release their water of hydration in the form of steam.

• Chemical structure of sodium zeolite can be represented as

Na2OAl2O3.SiO2.H2O. These are capable of exchanging their sodium
ions for multivalent ions of calcium & magnesium present in water.

• Removes dissolved salt and gases along with hardness.

• Does not introduce any new salts to water.

• Can be used with lower quantity of coagulants as required.

Zeolite or Permutit process
Zeolite or Permutit process
Zeolite or Permutit process
Zeolite or Permutit process
Zeolite or Permutit process
Zeolite vs Lime Soda process