prechlorination

9.3

A treatment step that adds chlorine to water before filtering to kill bacteria

noun
/priːˌklɔːrəˈneɪʃən/

Specialized

: precloración

Before the purification process begins, prechlorination is applied to eliminate harmful bacteria from the water.

Examples

Because the samples of treated water were drawn directly following filtration, the reduction of organic material and microbiological components was incomplete, despite partial prechlorination.

Academic text (2003)
During the treatment of wastewater, technicians used prechlorination to enhance disinfection efficiency.
The prechlorination of the water supply helped to improve its safety for drinking.

Synonyms

disinfection

vsprechlorination

3 4.1

Cleaning something with chemicals to kill harmful germs

focuses on adding chlorine before a later process rather than only killing microbes

pretreatment

vsprechlorination

Specialized

1 5.1

An action or product that prepares something before the main treatment

uses chlorine as the specific preparatory step before the next process

chlorination

vsprechlorination

Specialized

1 4.8

Adding chlorine to water to kill germs or cause a chemical change

adds chlorine specifically before a following process to aid purification

Antonyms

dechlorination

Specialized

6.3

Removing chlorine from water, chemicals, or soil

How Chlorinated

chlorination

Specialized

1 4.8

prechlorination

Specialized

9.3

unchlorinated

5.3

Surface Forms

prechlorination singular

prechlorinations plural

Morphology

prechlorination = chlorination (semi-transparent) = pre + chlorin + ation

The word clearly means 'before chlorination', but the base term is technical, so the full meaning is only partly transparent to a general learner.

Etymology

Prechlorination is made of pre- 'before' and chlorine, which comes from the Greek word chloros meaning 'green' because the gas looks green. So prechlorination means adding chlorine 'before' the main water treatment to help clean the water and kill germs.