How Water Purification and Filtration Differ

When it comes to treating water for drinking, two terms come to mind: purification and filtration. While they’re often used interchangeably, filtration and purification differ in many fundamental ways.

Of the two, purification is more misunderstood. A lot of people believe that water is “pure” if it doesn’t have anything mixed with it. But the gist of the term is in its root word “purify,” which by definition means removing what is unwanted and not necessarily all that isn’t H2O. The only components targeted by iodine or chlorine water purification are harmful contaminants like viruses, chemicals, and their ilk. Of the two water treatment methods, purification is considered less effective as it can’t always remove every impurity there is.

On the other hand, filtration is derived from the root word “filter”, which means that water goes through a barrier to remove unwanted contaminants. A perfect example of this is reverse osmosis, which uses special methods to treat water like sediment and activated carbon filters, the latter being the most effective at removing even microscopic impurities . Filtration systems come in permanent or portable configurations, and the size of the system to be used is determined by how much water needs treatment.