Treatment of industrial makeup water is a process of external water treatment. External treatment involves the treatment, by various processes, of makeup water to remove or reduce hardness, alkalinity, dissolved gases, or other impurities before the water enters the water system. Operations used for the treatment of industrial makeup water in which change is brought about by means of or through the application of physical forces are known as physical unit operations. Because physical unit operations were derived originally from observations of the physical world they were the first treatment methods to be used. Today, physical unit operations are a major part of most industrial makeup water system.
The unit operations most commonly used in industrial makeup water treatment: