What Is Distilled Water? Here Are the Uses and Benefits

When we are talking about industrial water, there are many types of water utilized; one of them is distilled water. Distilled water is obtained from the distillation process, which involves heating water to produce steam and then condensing it into liquid. Learn how to make it by reading the full details below.

What Is Distilled Water?

Distilled water is obtained from the distillation process. This process removes contaminants and particles, such as organic substances, salts, ions, and minerals, as well as purifies it.

Similar to other purified water, distilled water is one of the materials used in various industries, such as the pharmaceutical and automotive industries.

So, is distilled water safe to drink? Yes, it is potable and safe for consumption. However, because it lacks minerals, it does not provide the essential micronutrients your body typically gets from regular drinking water.

Moreover, distilled water might not be able to hydrate you as well as other drinking water. It also tastes more bland due to its high purity.

Talking about its heating process, is distilled water similar to boiled water for drinking? Distilled water is produced by heating water to create steam, which is then collected and condensed back into liquid form. On the other hand, boiled water is heated until its boiling point without the steam being collected.

Boiling drinking water helps eliminate germs and bacteria, while distillation goes a step further by heating water to remove minerals and other contaminants. As a result, boiled water still contains minerals, but distilled water does not.

Furthermore, distilled water is often compared to deionized water. Deionized water is obtained from the exchange of H+ and OH- ions by electrically charged resins. Therefore, deionized water can lose its minerals and become pure water.

However, unlike distilled water, deionized water is considered unsafe to drink because of its corrosive properties. The deionization process also cannot filter out some types of pathogens that could harm the body if consumed.

How to Make Distilled Water

As explained before, distilled water comes from the distillation process. It is considered a long process, which in 4–6 hours, you can only get 1 gallon of distilled water.

The feed water will be heated in a heating chamber to produce steam. The steam is collected and condensed into a liquid.

Most inorganic compounds and some molecules cannot evaporate along with the water, so they remain in the heating chamber. As a result, the condensed liquid is highly pure, without any contaminants, minerals, salts, or other molecules.

The following are the detailed steps to make distilled water with distillation:

The water is heated in the heating chamber to reach a rolling boil (a condition where the water boils with a stable temperature and big bubbles). This condition causes evaporation.
Steam evaporates to the stainless steel condensers, while non-volatile particles will remain in the heating chamber.
The steam is condensed in the condensers with the help of cooling fans. As a result, the steam will turn back into water droplets, which are then collected in a clean container. After that, the liquid will be filtered.
During filtration, the remaining contaminants will be discharged.
Once filtered, the water flows into the reservoir. Now, it is ready to use and is in a pure and clean condition.

Distilled water may have lost most contaminants. However, the effectiveness of the water distillation is also determined by the impurities in the water.

For example, some types of organic compounds, such as benzene, have a low boiling point. Therefore, they can contaminate when the water cooled in the condensation process.

Yet, many recent distillers have filtering media, such as activated carbon that can trap contaminants before the water leaves the distiller.

The Uses of Distilled Water

Ideally, distilled water is used for industrial purposes, just like other purified water, such as demineralized water, instead of being potable water. Below are some uses of distilled water you should know:

1. Medical Sector

Distilled water is often used to wash medical supplies to avoid spreading infections and contaminants. In addition, laboratory testing also uses this water since it does not cause reactions that can affect lab results.

2. Pharmaceutical Industry

This industry needs very pure water because a drop of contaminant in water can react with other materials, meaning that it can trigger chemical reactions. Moreover, distilled water can be used to produce cosmetics, such as moisturizers, creams, shampoos, deodorants, and many more.

3. Factory Using Boilers

Distilled water is used in high-pressure boilers to prevent rust and crust from damaging the machines. Not only distilled water, but also factories use demineralized water to maintain the performance of the machines.

4. Automotive Industry

Distilled water can be used in automobile engines or lead-acid batteries. This water does not cause crust and rust in the engine. It can also be used in cooling systems, gas turbine engines, and aircraft engines.

Aside from the four industries mentioned above, distilled water is also used to clean circuit boards in the electronics industry, boost air pressure in old-modeled aircraft, and stop mineral buildup in cigar boxes.

The Benefits of Distilled Water

Distilled water is one of the purified water choices, giving a lot of advantages for various purposes, such as:

1. Multipurpose

Distilled water is frequently used for industrial purposes. But also, it can be used for households, such as for fish tanks, watering your plants, and steam ironing.

2. Free Bacteria and Viruses

The distillation process removes not only the minerals in water but also viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms. That's why distilled water is often used in the food and beauty industry.

3. The Most Pure Water Option

There are many water filtration methods used in households and industry, but distillation is the most effective method that can produce almost pure water. Based on a publication at Georgia University, distillation can remove 99.9% of minerals and dissolved substances from water, making it pure.

4. More Inexpensive than Bottled Water

You can do distillation at home by installing some equipment, such as a water distiller, which has been designed to be as simple as possible for household use. As a result, you can make pure drinking water that is more cost-effective than buying bottled water.

For example, if you have a water distiller, it may be quite expensive at first, but you can use it every day with various types of water, such as tap water. That means if you use bottled water, you’ll need to buy more every time it runs out.

Although it is cheaper than bottled water, you need to be aware that distilled water does not contain minerals, so you need to fulfill your macronutrient intake from other food sources. Therefore, if you need mineral intake from mineral water, you should consume bottled water instead of distilled water.

That is the information about distilled water you can learn. Distilled water is claimed to be the purest water, making it suitable for industrial use that is free of chemical reactions, rust, and crusts.

In addition to distilled water, you can also use demineralized water. If you need demineralized water or clean water for industrial purposes, you can entrust it to Krakatau Tirta Industri.

The Chandra Asri Group-affiliated company provides demineralized water, clean water, and wastewater management in a standardized and conscientious manner. So, make sure to always use high-quality industrial water from Krakatau Tirta Industri!