Sodium is a naturally occurring mineral that is found in almost everything you consume. From apples to almonds, the water and milk we all drink, sodium is a common ingredient. So when someone say's " Sodium is used to soften water" : This is one of the biggest miss statement / misconceptions! Here's why. Calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) ions that cause water hardness can be removed fairly easily by using an ion exchange procedure. Standard water softeners are cation exchange devices. Cations refer to positively charged ions dissolved in the water. Cation exchange involves the replacement of the hardness ions with a non hardness ion. Water softeners usually use sodium (Na+) as the exchange ion. Sodium ions are supplied from dissolved sodium chloride salt, also called brine. In the ion exchange process, sodium ions are used to coat an exchange medium in the softener. The exchange medium can be natural “zeolites” or synthetic resin beads that r...
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