Chlorine - Advantages, Disinfection action, Doses, Free and combined, Killing action and Residual Chlorine

CHLORINE

Chlorine is added to water for the purpose of killing disease causing microorganisms. This process is called chlorination. It is universally adopted for the following reasons

• It can be stored easily for an extended period without the risk of deterioration in quality
• It is cheap and easily available
• It is cheap and easy to transport
• It is easy to monitor the dose of chlorine, thereby reducing the risk of overdosing or applying insufficient dose
• The cost of installation of chlorination plant is low
• It is a very powerful disinfectant and remains in water as residual chlorine to effectively handle future contamination due to microorganisms
• It can be applied uniformly
• The operation of chlorination plant does not require much skilled supervision
• No sludge is formed due to chlorination

Disinfection action of chlorine

When chlorine is added to water, hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions are formed.