Many of us have probably heard about distilled water or distillate at least once in our lives. In fact, it is simply highly purified water, which is actively used in the chemical industry and medicine. In this article we will analyze what distillate is all the features of its production, properties and practical application. And let's start with the history of cleaning methods for such an important and widespread resource on Earth as water.
History
Over time, mankind, producing an increasing number of goods, increased the volume of waste produced in this process. Of course, the most popular method of disposing of the resulting harmful compounds was their burial underground, or discharge into water bodies. In fact, even after the "digging" of waste there is a big chance that some of them will fall into water bodies through groundwater. With the progress of industry, water purification systems also improved, and this was necessary for the safe existence of people. The earliest methods of cleaning and obtaining cleaner water were probably made two thousand years ago, when people boiled or filtered water through raw sand. The purpose of these operations was to make the water tastier.
However, now there are more advanced cleaning methods, and basically they are not intended for drinking water. The fact is that too much purified water harms the body. It does not contain dissolved salts, so the salts of the body are dissolved in it and excreted through the urine. And leaching of salts does not bode well, because with their help many important processes occur in the human body, including the functioning of body cells (potassium-sodium pump).
What is distillate?
Distillate is called water of a high degree of filtration, obtained by distillation in a special apparatus - a distiller. To distinguish between themselves the degree of water purification, the concept of bi-distillate, that is, a distillate that has undergone another distillation process, is also introduced.
Rectificate or distillate - are these the same concepts? No, they should be distinguished. They differ in the purification method: the distillate is purified by distillation, and the rectification, as its name implies, is rectification (this is the process of separation of mixtures due to countercurrent exchange of mass and thermal energy). Rectification, as a rule, is used to separate mixtures of various liquids. It allows you to get the components of the initial mixture separately in almost pure form. But for water it is very often not relevant. Therefore, distillation is used to clean the most important resource on the planet. It allows you to purify water from many ions, as well as impurities that are inevitably present in it.
De-ionized water is also isolated. It differs from distilled one in that it practically does not have any substance ions in its composition. We can say that this is the most purified water in the world. It is used only for experiments, since such water is dangerous for humans (and, by the way, is completely tasteless). For de-ionized water, there is also a method of production that is different from others, but more on that later.
Where is water distillate used?
We come to one of their most interesting questions. If this water cannot be drunk, then what else can you do with it, you ask. As we said above, distilled water is used for purely scientific purposes. With its help create a medium in the reactions because even a small concentration of any impurities can ruin the ongoing reaction. In addition, the distillate is perfect for washing metal surfaces. It is widely used in everyday life for pouring into an iron because it does not cause scale at all.
Rectificates or distillates are also used in pharmaceuticals for the preparation of oral solutions. By the way, distillate is used to make one of the alcoholic beverages - grappa.
Getting distilled water
What is distillate, we have already disassembled. And now let's move on to the methods of obtaining this ultrapure water. As a rule, the simplest distiller consists of several parts: a heating element, a vessel with purified water, a refrigerator, and, in fact, a container in which the resulting distillate will accumulate. When heated, the original "dirty" water produces steam, devoid of impurities of nanoparticles and salts. It enters the refrigerator, where it condenses and drains into a receiving vessel in the form of a new purified liquid. This method is used in order to obtain light distillates.
There is also another way to cleanse. For its implementation, a plate column is used for distillation. In fact, the essence of the process remains the same, only the technological component changes. A plate column for distillation is used mainly for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, or rather, for the purification of alcohol from impurities. Its advantage, unlike a conventional distiller, is that it involves stepwise cleaning, and after each step the purity of the product is increased. And this happens without having to refill the liquid into a distiller or bi-distiller.
Obtaining de-ionized water
A little more about another form of purified water - de-ionized. It is obtained with the help of ion-exchange resins, i.e., substances capable of retaining positive or negative ions in themselves. After that, the water comes out as clean as possible, devoid of protons and hydroxide ions. It is used in chemical experiments. In addition, de-ionized water has distinctive physical properties: its electrical resistance is very high, since there are no ions that can carry an electric charge.
Conclusion
We examined in detail the process of obtaining distilled, bi-distilled and de-ionized water, and learned what distillate is. Enough has been said about the importance of this product, which is actually the result of distillation of water. Therefore, we will only say that, although water purification is important in everyday life, it’s also not worth it to go too far, as this can cause significant harm to your health.