Chapter 2 - The Water Industry

Abstract

Water is available, as a raw material, either by collection directly, as it falls as rain, or by collection from holes or depressions in the earth's surface, as river, lake, or marsh water. This chapter describes the various types of water available for treatment, such as rainwater, surface water, underground sources, and seawater or brackish water. The treatment of the various types of water depends on the application to which it is destined, together with a huge range of other factors, such as volume, temperature, type of pollution if any, environmental considerations, and cost. Potable water is treated by several processes, such as screening, microscreening, predisinfection or oxidation, decantation, filtration, fluoridation, materialization coagulation, and flocculation. Effluents and municipal wastewater are much more corrosive materials than potable water, and the field of intervention for thermoplastic and composite materials is much wider and varied. Their treatment processes include recuperation, screening and grit removal, flocculation, settling and flotation, dewatering and sludge thickening, and odor control.