Water Distillation

Although it has primarily been employed as a method of producing hard alcoholic beverages, distillation has also been used as a technique of water purification for many years. Distillation was a popular method of home water purification in the 1970s, but its use is now largely confined to science laboratories or printing industries.

Distillation utilizes a heat source to first vaporize water, separating pure water molecules from contaminants with a higher boiling point than water. In this process, water is first heated until it reaches its boiling point and begins to evaporate. The water temperature is then kept at a constant, ensuring continued water vaporization. Drinking water contaminants with a higher boiling point do not evaporate. The evaporated water is captured and guided through a system of tubes to another container where it is finally removed from the heat source to condense back into its original liquid form. The water contaminants, having a higher boiling point than water, remain in the original holding container. Water Distillation removes most minerals, most bacteria and viruses, and any chemicals that have a higher boiling point than water.

Distillation, similarly to reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water to be used in science laboratories or for printing purposes, as both functions require mineral-free water. It removes heavy metal materials like lead, arsenic, and mercury from water and hardening agents like calcium and phosphorous. Distillation is often used as the preferred water purification method in developing nations, or areas where the risk of waterborne disease is high, due to its unique capabilities to remove bacteria and viruses from drinking water.

Problems with Distillation

Distillation is not ideal for municipally treated water. While removing mineral and bacterial drinking water contaminants, the Distillation process does not remove chlorine, chlorine byproducts, or VOCs. These major additives of municipal water treatment have a lower boiling point than water. Many other dangerous metals and bacteria have already been removed from water prior to its arrival to homes. For this reason, a distillation system that is targeted at the removal of mineral and bacterial contaminants is unnecessary in most cases.

Distillation, like reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water that can be quite dangerous to the body's system when ingested, due to its acidity. Acidic drinking water strips bones and teeth of valuable and essential mineral constituents.

Distillation is an incredibly wasteful water treatment process. In most cases, nearly 80% of water used during this process is discarded along with the contaminants it removed, leaving only one gallon of purified water for every five gallons treated.