What types of water treatment equipment can remove nitrate?
Distillation Can remove nearly 100% of nitrate. Energy intensive-releases heat to surrounding environment. Most stills sold for home use have limited capacity: 5 to 10 gallons per day-enough for cooking and drinking. Mineral scale will build up inside the boiling vessel. Periodic scale removal will be necessary. CAUTION! Distillation is a two-step process! 1. Water is boiled to produce steam. 2. This steam is cooled and condensed to form purified water. Boiling alone will NOT remove nitrate. Reverse Osmosis Water passes through a special membrane which screens out most (but not all) of the nitrate and minerals. When purchasing RO equipment, be sure to ask how much nitrate each brand and model can remove. This will vary; some RO units can remove 90% or more of the nitrate. Like distillation, most RO units sold for home use have limited capacity-5 to 10 gallons per day-enough for drinking and cooking. Anion exchange Operates much like a water softener. Water passes through a resin-filled
