CHEMISTRY

PROJECT FILE
NAME – PRANAY PRASAD
PONNAGANTI

CLASS – XII

ROLL NO. –

SESSION – 2024 - 2025

TOPIC

Sterilization of Water Using

Bleaching Powder

SUBMITTED TO
 Mrs. Shweta Joshi
Chemistry Department

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project submitted by Pranay Prasad
Ponnaganti of class XII in the session 2024-25 in the Department of
Chemistry , Crimson Anisha Global School , Undri , NIBM Campus ,
Pune is in accordance to the specification presented by Central Board
of Secondary Education (CBSE) , New Delhi

He had worked on the project “Sterilization of Water

Using Bleaching Powder” under my supervision.
During this period, he was found to be sincere and hardworking

Teacher’s signature Principal’s signature

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude towards
my chemistry teacher Mrs. Shweta Joshi for her
precious and valuable guidance which played a crucial
role in not only my investigatory project on the topic
“Sterilization of Water Using Bleaching Powder, but also
throughout the session with my studies. I am very
grateful to the school as well, for giving me this
opportunity. Last but not the least I would like to thank
my parents and friends for helping me in this project.

Pranay Prasad Ponnaganti

XII
2024- 2025
 CONTENTS
 Abstract
 Introduction

 Theory

 Experiment

 Result

 Conclusion

 Bibliography
 INTRODUCTION

Need of water
Water is an important and essential ingredient in our quest for
survival on this planet. It is very essential for carrying out various
metabolic processes in our body and also to carry out Hemoglobin
throughout the body.

A daily average of 1 gallon per man is sufficient for drinking and

cooking purposes. A horse, bullock, or mule drinks about 11 gallons
at a time. standing up, an average allowance of 5 gallons should be
given for a man, and 10 gallons for a horse or a camel. An elephant
drinks 25 gallons, each mule or ox drinks 6 to 8 gallons, each sheep or
pig 6 to 8 pints. These are minimum quantities.

One cubic foot of water = 6 gallons (a gallon = 10 lbs.)

In order to fulfill such a huge demand of water, it needs to be purified

and supplied in a orderly and systematic way.

But with the increasing world population, the demand for drinking
water has also increased dramatically and therefore it is very essential
to identify resources of water from which we can use water for
drinking purposes. Many available resources of water do not have it
in drinkable form. Either the water contains excess of Calcium or
Magnesium salts or any other organic impurity or it simply contains
foreign particles which make it unfit and unsafe for Drinking.

Purification of Water

There are many methods for the purification of water. Some of them are
1. Boiling

2. Filtration

3. Bleaching powder treatment

4. SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection)

And the list goes on….

Boiling is perhaps the most commonly used water purification

technique in use today. While in normal households it is an efficient
technique; it cannot be used for industrial and large scale purposes. It
is because in normal households, the water to be purified is very small
in quantity and hence the water loss due to evaporation is almost
negligible. But in Industrial or large scale purification of water the
water loss due to evaporation will be quite high and the amount of
purified water obtained will be very less.

Filtration is also used for removing foreign particles from water. One
major drawback of this purification process is that it cannot be used
for removing foreign chemicals and impurities that are miscible with
water.

SODIS or Solar Water Disinfection is recommended by the United

Nations for disinfection of water using soft drink bottles, sunlight, and
a black surface-- at least in hot nations with regularly intense sunlight.

Water-filled transparent bottles placed in a horizontal position atop a

flat surface in strong sunlight for around five hours will kill microbes
in the water. The process is made even more safe and effective if the
bottom half of the bottle or the surface it's lying on is blackened,
and/or the flat surface is made of plastic or metal. It's the combination
of heat and ultraviolet light which kills the organisms.

The major drawback of this purification technique is that it cannot be

used in countries with cold weather. Also, the time consumed for
Purification process is more and it also needs a ‘blackened’ surface,
much like solar cookers.

Need for a stable purification technique

Therefore we need a purification technique which can be used

anytime and anywhere, does not require the use of any third party
content and which is also economically feasible on both normal scale
and large scale.

Hence we look at the method of purification of water using the

technique of treatment by bleaching powder commonly known as
“Chlorination”.
 THEORY
History of water purification in different parts of the world.
In 1854 it was discovered that a cholera epidemic spread through
water. The outbreak seemed less severe in areas where sand filters
were installed. British scientist John Snow found that the direct cause
of the outbreak was water pump contamination by sewage water. He
applied chlorine to purify the water, and this paved the way for water
disinfection. Since the water in the pump had tasted and smelled
normal, the conclusion was finally drawn that good taste and smell
alone do not guarantee safe drinking water. This discovery led to
governments starting to install municipal water filters (sand filters and
chlorination), and hence the first government regulation of public
water.

In the 1890s America started building large sand filters to protect

public health. These turned out to be a success. Instead of slow sand
filtration, rapid sand filtration was now applied. Filter capacity was
improved by cleaning it with powerful jet steam. Subsequently, Dr.
Fuller found that rapid sand filtration worked much better when it was
preceded by coagulation and sedimentation techniques. Meanwhile,
such waterborne illnesses as cholera and typhoid became less and less
common as water chlorination won terrain throughout the world.

But the victory obtained by the invention of chlorination did not last
long. After some time the negative effects of this element were
discovered. Chlorine vaporizes much faster than water, and it was
linked to the aggravation and cause of respiratory disease. Water
experts started looking for alternative water disinfectants. In 1902
calcium hypo chlorite and ferric chloride were mixed in a drinking
water supply in Belgium, resulting in both coagulation and
disinfection.

The treatment and distribution of water for safe use is one of the
greatest achievements of the twentieth century. Before cities began
routinely treating drinking water with chlorine (starting with Chicago
and Jersey City in US in 1908), cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and
hepatitis A killed thousands of U.S. residents annually. Drinking
water chlorination and filtration have helped to virtually eliminate
these diseases in the U.S. and other developed countries. Meeting the
goal of clean, safe drinking water requires a multi-barrier approach
that includes: protecting source water from contamination,
appropriately treating raw water, and ensuring safe distribution of
treated water to consumers’ taps. During the treatment process,
chlorine is added to drinking water as elemental chlorine (chlorine
gas), sodium hypochlorite solution or dry calcium hypochlorite. When
applied to water, each of these forms “free chlorine,” which destroys
pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms. Almost all systems that
disinfect their water use some type of chlorine-based process, either
alone or in combination with other disinfectants. In addition to
controlling disease-causing organisms, chlorination offers a number
of benefits including:
• Reduces many disagreeable tastes and odors;

• Eliminates slime bacteria, molds and algae that commonly grow in

water supply reservoirs, on the walls of water mains and in storage
tanks;

• Removes chemical compounds that have unpleasant tastes and

hinder disinfection;

• Helps remove iron and manganese from raw water. As importantly,

only chlorine-based chemicals provide “residual disinfectant” levels
that prevent microbial re-growth and help protect treated water
throughout the distribution system.

For more than a century, the safety of drinking water supplies has
been greatly improved by the addition of bleaching powder.
Disinfecting our drinking water ensures it is free of the
microorganisms that can cause serious and life-threatening diseases,
such as cholera and typhoid fever. To this day, bleaching powder
remains the most commonly used drinking water disinfectant, and the
disinfectant for which we have the most scientific information.
Bleaching powder is added as part of the drinking water treatment
process. However, bleaching powder also reacts with the organic
matter, naturally present in water, such as decaying leaves. This
chemical reaction forms a group of chemicals known as disinfection
by-products. Current scientific data shows that the benefits of
bleaching our drinking water (less disease) are much greater than any
health risks from THMs and other by-products. Although other
disinfectants are available, bleaching powder remains the choice of
water treatment experts. When used with modern water filtration
methods, chlorine is effective against virtually all microorganisms.
Bleaching powder is easy to apply and small amounts of the chemical
remain in the water as it travels in the distribution system from the
treatment plant to the consumer’s tap, this level of effectiveness
ensures that microorganisms cannot recontaminate the water after it
leaves the treatment.
 But what is bleaching powder and how is it prepared?

Bleaching powder or Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound

with formula Ca(ClO) 2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a
bleaching agent bleaching powder). This chemical is considered to be
relatively stable and has greater available chlorine than sodium
hypochlorite (liquid bleach).

It is prepared by either calcium process or sodium process.

Calcium Process
2 Ca(OH)2 + 2 Cl2 → Ca(ClO)2 + CaCl2 + 2 H2O

Sodium Process
2 Ca(OH)2 + 3 Cl2 + 2 NaOH → Ca(ClO)2 + CaCl2 + 2 H2O + 2 NaCl

But how can this chemical be used to sterilize water?

This chemical can be used for sterilizing water by Using 5 drops of
bleach per each half gallon of water to be purified, and allowing it to sit
undisturbed for half an hour to make it safe for drinking. Letting it sit
several hours more will help reduce the chlorine taste, as the chlorine
will slowly evaporate out. A different reference advises when using
household bleach for purification; add a single drop of bleach per quart
of water which is visibly clear, or three drops per quart of water where
the water is NOT visibly clear. Then allow the water to sit undisturbed
for half an hour.
What are the actual processes involved in disinfecting and
purifying water?
The combination of following processes is used for municipal drinking
water treatment worldwide: 1. Pre-chlorination - for algae control and
arresting any biological growth
2. Aeration - along with pre-chlorination for removal of dissolved iron
and manganese
3. Coagulation - for flocculation
4. Coagulant aids also known as polyelectrolyte’s - to improve
coagulation and for thicker floc formation
5. Sedimentation - for solids separation, that is, removal of suspended
solids trapped in the floc
6. Filtration - for removal of carried over floc
7. Disinfection - for killing bacteria

Out of these processes, the role of Bleaching powder is only in the last
step i.e. for Disinfection of water.
 EXPERIMENT
Aim: EXPERIMENT To Determine the dosage of bleaching powder
required for sterilization or disinfection of different samples of water.
Requirements: Burette, titration flask, 100ml graduated cylinder,
250ml measuring flask, weight box, glazed tile, glass wool.
Bleaching Powder, Glass wool, 0.1 N Na2S2O3 solution, 10% KI
solution, different samples of water, starch solution.

Pre-Requisite Knowledge:
1. A known mass of the given sample of bleaching powder is
dissolved in water to prepare a solution of known
concentration. This solution contains dissolved chlorine,
liberated by the action of bleaching powder with water.
CaOCl2+H20 Ca(OH)2+Cl2

2. The amount of Chlorine present in the above solution is

determined by treating a known volume of the above
solution with excess of 10% potassium iodide solution,
when equivalent amount of Iodine is liberated. The Iodine,
thus liberated is then estimated by titrating it against a
standard solution of Sodium thiosulphate, using starch
solution as indicator.
Cl 2+2 KI → 2 KCl+ I 2

I 2+ 2 Na2 S 2 O3 → Na2 S 4 O 6+ 2 NaI

 3. A known Volume of one of the given samples of water is
treated with a known volume of bleaching powder solution.
The amount of residual chlorine is determined by adding
excess potassium iodide solution and then titrating against
standard sodium thiosulphate solution.

4. From the readings in 2 and 3, the amount of chlorine and

hence bleaching powder required for the disinfection of a
given volume of the given sample of water can be
calculated.

Procedure:
1. Preparation of bleaching powder solution. Weigh accurately 2.5g of the
given sample of bleaching powder and transfer it to a 250ml conical flask.
Add about 100-150ml of distilled water. Stopper the flask and shake it
vigorously. The suspension thus obtained is filtered through glass wool
and the filtrate is diluted with water (in a measuring flask) to make the
volume 250ml. The solution obtained is 1% bleaching powder solution.
2. Take 20ml of bleaching powder solution in a stoppered conical flask
and add it to 20ml of 10% KI solution. Stopper the flask and shake it
vigorously. Titrate this solution against 0.1N Na2S2O3 solution taken in
the burette. When the solution in the conical flask becomes light yellow in
color, add about 2ml starch solution. The solution now becomes blue in
color. Continue titrating till the blue color just disappears. Repeat the
titration to get a set of three concordant readings.
3. Take 100ml of the water sample in a 250ml stoppered conical flask and
add it to 10ml of bleching powder solution. Then add 20ml of KI solution
and stopper the flask. Shake vigorously and titrate against 0.1N Na2S2O3
solution using starch solution as indicator as described in step 2.
4. Repeat the step 3 with other samples of water and record the
observations.
 RESULT
Amount of the given sample of bleaching powder required to disinfect one
litre of water

Sample I = 20 ml

Sample II= 25ml

Sample III=30ml

CONCLUSION
In this project, we learned how bleaching powder can be used to make
water safe to drink. By adding a specific amount of bleaching powder to
water, we release chlorine, which kills harmful germs. To find the right
amount of bleaching powder, we used a method called titration, which
helped us measure how much was needed to clean different samples of
water.

This project shows that bleaching powder is a useful and easy way to
disinfect water, especially in places where clean water is hard to get. It’s
a simple and effective method to protect people from diseases that can
spread through dirty water. This experiment also helped us understand
how chemistry can solve everyday problems and make our lives
healthier.
 PRECAUTIONS
Some of the precautions which need
to be taken care of are –
1. Concentrated solutions should be handled
with immense care.
2. Hands should be washed thoroughly
after performing each experiment.
3. If possible, one should wear hand gloves
to prevent from any possible damage.
4. If chemicals come into contact with your skin
or eyes, flush immediately with copious amounts
of water.
5. Never leave burners unattended. Turn them
off whenever you leave your workstation.
6. Never point a test tube or any vessel that you
are heating at yourself or your neighbour.
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