Chlorination and De-chlorination of Water System

Learn what should be the effective concentration of chlorine and how chlorination and de-
chlorination of water system is done using Sodium hypochlorite and Sodium metabisulfite.
Ankur Choudhary | Engineering | Microbiology | Water 1 Comment so far
Purified water is a basic requirement of any pharmaceutical industry. Generally the source of raw
water remains a bore well and raw water is stored in a storage tank. This raw water is stored for
several days. These storage tanks are not cleaned for many days. Due to these situation problem
of microbial growth would occur in raw water storage tank and con contaminate the whole water
system.

This is a common problem in pharmaceutical industries and generally solved by chlorination of

the water storage tank. Sodium hypochlorite is used for chlorination of water. When sodium
hypochlorite is dissolved in water is gives free chlorine that forms hypochlorous acid which
actively takes part in disinfection process.

Cl2 + H2O HOCl + HCl

Chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent that oxidizes organic compounds effectively. Hypochlorous
acid is neutrally charged molecule that easily penetrates into the negatively charged pathogen
cell wall and reacts with the lipids of cell wall and enzymes and proteins within the cytoplasm of
cell making them nonfunctional. Due to this the growth of organism is inhibited and organism
dies or does not reproduce further.

Concentration of chlorine in water and contact time plays a significant role in water disinfection.
A 5ppm concentration of chlorine in water is effective. It takes 15-30 minutes to kill all the
pathogens in water.

Quantity of Sodium hypochlorite to be added in water tank can be calculated by following

formula:
Volume of sodium hypochlorite = Volume of water x required concentration in PPM
1000000 x %age of chlorine in Hypo

Example: 100000 x 5 = 500000 = 0.09 ltr

1000000 x 5.8 5800000

All molecules of added chlorine do not react with the organic matter of raw water but excess of
the chlorine remains in water in active form. This active chlorine is corrosive in nature and
damages the RO membranes and ion exchange resins of water purification systems. Drinking
water should not contain more than three ppm of free chlorine. So removal of this chlorine is
necessary before this water is treated by resins and reverse osmosis membranes.

There are various methods to remove the chlorine residues from the water before the water
treatment. As far as ultra violet light also helps to remove the chlorine but it does not seem too
effective and needs chemical neutralization of chlorine also. Sodium thiosulfate and sodium
metabisulphite are generally used for this purpose. These methods can cause scaling in RO
membranes thereafter efficiency of RO system can be reduced.

Sodium thiosulfate is found in the form of colorless crystals and reacts with chlorine as a
reducing agent. Reaction of sodium thiosulfate with hypochlorous acid produces sodium sulfate
and hydrochloric acid.
Na2S2O3 + 4HOCl + H2O 2NaHSO4 + 4HCl
The required amount of sodium thiosulfate may vary according to the pH of the water.

Sodium metabisulphite is a widely used white powder for the removal of chlorine from water
system. It produces sodium bisulfate and hydrochloric acid with the reaction of hypochlorous
acid.
Na2S2O5 + 2HOCl + H2O 2NaHSO4 + 2HCl
The required amount of the sodium metabisulfite can be calculated. Approximately 1.34 ppm of
sodium metabisulfite is required to neutralize the 1 ppm of free chlorine.

Therefore the chlorination and de-chlorination both are essential part of water purification
system and both of these should be done effectively during the water purification. De-
chlorination by ultraviolet light is safer because it does not create the de-chlorination byproducts,
those are harmful for human. But due to more practical approaches, de-chlorination by chemical
methods is being done widely in pharmaceutical industries.