Chlorination Water Treatment System

As a halogen, chlorine is a highly efficient disinfectant, and is added to water supplies to kill disease-causing pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoans, that commonly grow in water supply reservoirs, on the walls of water mains and in storage tanks. The microscopic agents of many diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery killed countless people annually before disinfection methods were employed routinely.

Chlorine is obtained from salt (NaCl). It is a gas at atmospheric pressures but liquifies under pressure. The liquified gas is transported and used as such.

As a strong oxidizing agent, chlorine kills via the oxidation of organic molecules. Chlorine and hydrolysis product hypochlorous acid are neutrally charged and therefore easily penetrate the negatively charged surface of pathogens. It is able to disintegrate the lipids that compose the cell wall and react with intracellular enzymes and proteins, making them nonfunctional. Microorganisms then either die or are no longer able to multiply.