What Is Distilled Water Made of?

Distillation units turn ordinary water into pure water, free of germs and dissolved substances.

Distilled water is made of water and nothing but water. Distilled water is pure H2O, free of dissolved minerals and other solids. It is also free of bacteria, parasites, nitrates, most organic compounds, sodium, calcium and heavy metals.

Distillation Purifies

The North Dakota State University agricultural extension service website says distillation removes over 99.5 percent of the impurities in the original water. Some volatile solvents and organic compounds with a boiling point close to that of water aren't removed by distillation. The water requires additional treatment to remove these residual compounds.

How It Works

To make distilled water, you boil original water into steam, says the N.D. State U. website. Virtually all the substances dissolved in the water stay behind. You then cool the steam, which condenses back into purified liquid water. You discard the sediment left behind in the distiller, clean the unit and start boiling another batch of water. Typical home distiller models can produce 3 to 7 gallons of distilled water per day.

Further Purity

Commercial distillers may use gas venting, activated carbon filters or fractional columns to remove the residual volatile compounds left after distillation, says the N.D. State U. website. A fractional column uses very precise temperature control to condense the volatile organics at a different part of the column than where the water condenses. Home distillation units equipped to remove residual volatile compounds use gas venting and charcoal filtration.

References

• N.D. State University.edu: Purifying Through Distillation