Hardness Of Water

Submitted By: Jitender Singh(5101) Raju Singh(5124)

Hardness of Water

Water contains salts of calcium, magnesium, sodium & potassium etc. A water containing salts of calcium, magnesium, iron etc. does not produce lather or foam with soap readily but first there is formation of white precipitate. Such water which does not form lather readily with soap is known as hard water. Presence of sodium or potassium salts in water, does not make water hard. Hardness character to water is due to presence of dissolved salts of heavy metals.`

Types of Hardness
Carbonate or Temporary Hardness: The hardness character in water due to presence of bicarbonate and some soluble carbonate salts of heavy metals, is the temporary hardness. Such salts are Ca(HCO3)2, Mg(HCO3)2, MgCO3, FeCO3. These water soluble salts can be converted to their water insoluble forms by simply boiling the water and the temporary hardness get removed.

Reactions:
Mg(HCO3)2 MgCO3 + H2O Mg(OH)2 + 2CO2 Mg(OH)2 + CO2

Ca(HCO3) 2

CaCO3 + CO2 +H2O

Types of hardness
Permanent or non-carbonate hardness: The hardness character in water due to presence of dissolved salts of heavy metals; other than bicarbonates, is known as permanent hardness. Such salts are CaCl2, MgCl2, CaSO4, MgSO4, Ca(NO3)2, Mg(NO3)2 etc. These salts can be removed by chemical treatment methods, to make water soft.

Total Hardness
The hardness due to all hardness causing salts, is known as total hardness and it can be written as: Total Hardness = Temporary Hardness + Permanent Hardness

Removal of Temporary Hardness

Temporary hardness can be removed by simply boiling the water sample. On boiling the Bicarbonates and carbonates are converted into water insoluble precipitate, which can be seprated by filtering. Reactions are given below: Mg(HCO3)2 Mg(OH)2 + 2CO2

MgCO3 + H2O Ca(HCO3) 2

Mg(OH)2 + CO2 CaCO3 + CO2 +H2O

Removal of Permanent Hardness

Permanent hardness cannot be removed by heating. Hence there is need of some chemical processes.

There are various methods to remove permanent hardness which are as follows: 1) EDTA Method 2) Ion Exchange Method 3) Zeolite Method By the above given methods we can remove the permanent hardness.

Water Hardness: Determination with EDTA

EDTA has a greater affinity for Ca2+ and Mg2+ when it is in the form of the dihydrogen anion H2EDTA2-. This is the ionic form of EDTA at pH 10.

Water Hardness: Determination with EDTA

H2EDTA2- binds to a Ca2+ ion by forming four special covalent bonds called coordinate covalent bonds.

+
Ca2+

2 H+

H2EDTA2-

Ca2+ ion chelated by EDTA

Water Hardness: Determination with EDTA

Procedure (Titration of Blank) Standardisation of EDTA 1) Fill the burette with standard Zinc Sulphate solution. Take 9ml of Zinc Sulphate solution in a 100ml conical flask. 2) To this add 3ml of buffer solution and 3 drops of Erichrome Black T-Indicator, wine red colour develops. Titrate this solution against EDTA solution till colour changes from wine red to blue. This is the end pt. let this reading be x1 ml. Without discarding the above titration mixture

Determination of Hardness
3) Without discarding above titration mixture add 1ml of std zinc sulphate solution to it. Wine red color develops . Titrate this against EDTA solution till again colour changes from wine red to blue. 4) Hence calculate the accurate molarity of the EDTA solution. Estimation of Total Hardness Repeat the above procedure with given hard water sample in place of standard zinc sulphate solution

Determination of Hardness
Estimation of Permanent Hardness Take 250ml of given water sample in 500ml beaker and boil it till the volume is reduced to 200ml. Then filter the water sample and hence the water so obtained is free from temporary hardness.

Chemical reactions involved:

Mg++ +EBT Mg-EBT(wine red comp.) Ca-EDTA(colourless) Mg-EDTA + EBT(blue) (colourless)

Ca++ + EDTA Mg-EBT + EDTA

Water Hardness: Determination with EDTA

Formula: Hardness of water sample = (YZ1001000)/V ppm Caco3 equivalent where: V= Volume of Water sample titrated, Y= Volume of EDTA(burette reading), Z= Molarity of EDTA sol.

Water Hardness: Determination with Ion Exchange Method

This method is used for obtaining pure water from ordinary water. There are two synthetic resins used: 1) Cation Exchanger Resin This is a polymer having carboxylated/sulphonated aromatic rings attached to chain. The h+ ions are loosely held by the COO-, SO32) Anion Exchanger resin This is a polymer having aromatic rings linked to a polymer chain and rings are with quaternary ammonium group. The oh- ions are loosely held so easily exchangeable.

Water Hardness: Determination with Ion Exchange Method

Principle: When water containing cations and anions is passed through the resins, cation exchanger resin captures all cations and anion exchanger resin captures all anions to give pure and all ions free water.

Process: The water to be treated, first enters in porous cation exchanger resin, where all cations are captured by the resin and H+ are released in exchange. e.g. H2R + 2Na+ Na2R + 2H+

Water Hardness: Determination with Ion Exchange Method

Then the acidic output from first resin, enters in the porous anion exchanger resin where all anions in water are captured and OH- are released in exchange. e.g. R(OH)2 + 2Cl- RCl2 + 2OHHence pure water is obtained as H+ + OH- H2O

Water Hardness: Determination with Zeolite process

Zeolite or pemutit: Zeolites are the complex mixture of metal silicates and metal aluminates. These are hydrated sodium alumino silicates represented as Na2O.Al2O3.xSiO2.yH2O(simply Na2Ze) The sodium zeolites are present naturally in certain porous rock. They can also be prepared from fusion of silica, soda and alumina. Principle: Sodium zeolite has the property of capturing the heavy metal ions from water and in exchange release the Na+. Due to removal of heavy metal ions from water, the hard water is converted into soft water.

Water Hardness: Determination with Zeolite process

Process: The zeolite softner consists of a cylindrical pot in which a coarse powder of sodium zeolite is placed over a perforated plate. There is an inlet on the top for hard water and an outlet for collecting soft water from bottom. There is another inlet for adding 10% NaCl solution to regenerate the exhausted zeolite bed.