June 30, 2010
The Lasting Action of Water Distillation
Since time began the system of water distillation has been present in nature and it has been applied by human beings for hundreds of years. It remains a very simple yet helpful means to filter water, eradicating the mass of bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms, and also other contaminants.
The Hydrologic Cycle which is otherwise known as the Water Cycle outlines the process that moves water around the earth. In simple terms, it means that the sun increases the temperature of the water in our oceans, rivers and lakes, which then will cause the water to evaporate and ascend into the air. This is followed by the cooling of the water vapour which leads to the creation of clouds. Once they become heavy with water, it finally rains back down towards the earth. By heating the river or ocean water, and collecting the condensed vapour, human beings realised that we could follow the example of this process to produce a purified drinking water source.
This process has subsequently been used in many ways to separate mixtures based on their diverse boiling points. Crude oil is distilled to split the different components for their exclusive uses such as heating, power generation and transportation. Oxygen, nitrogen and argon are the components gained when air is distilled for industrial use. Most notably perhaps and dating back as far as the 2nd millennium BC, distillation procedures were used to create alcoholic liquids. The method was also applied since the eleventh century to generate essential oils and other herbal pigments.
Distilled water has many current day uses such as in homes, in car batteries, filling your steam iron and filling fish tanks. Distilled water is also extensively used in industry, including the processing of various chemical and medical products, like medicines, vaccines and intravenous solutions.
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