30th June 2010
Water Distillation – an Enduring Practice
Since time started the practice of water distillation has been present in nature and it has been used by human beings for thousands of years. It remains a very simple yet effectual way to sanitize water, removing the bulk of bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms, and also other contaminants.
The process where water is moved around the earth is termed as the Water Cycle which is otherwise known as the Hydrologic Cycle. In simple words, this implies that the sun increases the temperature of the water in our oceans, rivers and lakes, which then brings about the water to evaporate and ascend into the air. The water vapour subsequently cools down and condenses to create clouds, which then become heavy with water and eventually rain back down to earth. By heating the river or ocean water, and collecting the condensed vapour, human beings realised that we could reproduce this process to generate a purified drinking water source.
The distillation process has subsequently been used in a variety of ways to separate mixtures based on their different boiling points. Crude oil is distilled to separate the different components for their exclusive uses such as heating, power generation and transport. Oxygen, nitrogen and argon are the components acquired when air is distilled for industrial use. Most notably perhaps and dating back as far as the 2nd millennium BC, distillation methods were used to produce alcoholic beverages. The procedure was also used commencing from the eleventh century to make essential oils and other herbal pigments.
In homes, in car batteries, filling your steam iron and filling fish tanks, distilled water has many modern-day uses. Distilled water is also commonly used in industry, including the making of various chemical and medical products, like medicines, vaccines and intravenous solutions.
