This blog entry is just looking in detail at the ozone treatment part of our borehole water system.
Our borehole water has a high concentration of ferrous iron, this is what’s often called “clear iron” as it doesn’t colour the water. It’s fairly common in water drawn from deeper aquifers, particularly in areas where there are natural iron deposits or soft (often slightly acidic) water that dissolves iron (and other metals, like manganese) from the surrounding rock. In our case our water comes from the Lower Greensand formation, an aquifer that is known to have water with high concentrations of ferrous iron as well as dissolved hydrogen sulphide gas (the “rotten eggs” smelly stuff).
The traditional way to remove ferrous iron, manganese and hydrogen sulphide from water is to just add oxygen to it, usually in the form of air, but it can be by using an oxidising catalyst. The most common oxidising catalyst is manganese dioxide, used in a filtration bed. This works OK, but it does eventually need replacing, or regenerating in some way, as it will lose its ability to oxidise after a time. Continue reading “Part Forty Two – Water Treatment”