The key difference between slaked lime and lime water is that the production of slaked lime is by adding water to calcium oxide whereas the production of the lime water is via stirring calcium hydroxide in pure water.
Both slaked lime and lime water contains calcium hydroxide as an aqueous solution. However, these two solutions differ from each other mainly according to their preparation procedure and the raw material that we use in their production. The common name of lime water is “milk of lime” because of the color of the solution.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Slaked Lime
3. What is Lime Water
4. Side by Side Comparison – Slaked Lime vs Lime Water in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Slaked Lime?
Slaked lime is hydrated calcium hydroxide. We can produce this solution via adding water to calcium oxide. The common name of calcium oxide is “quicklime”. We can get quicklime by heating limestone at a temperature at or above 900 centigrade. The addition of water to this calcium oxide is a dangerous reaction because it is highly exothermic.
Figure 01: Preparation of Slaked Lime
Slaked lime is available as either a powder or granules. The end product of the reaction from which we produce this compound appears as a dry, powder-like flour which has a light (mostly white) color. This compound is important as a neutralizing agent for industrial wastewater and for flue gas cleaning as well. Moreover, this compound can mix with carbon dioxide in the air to form limestone by releasing water.
What is Lime Water?
Lime water is a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide. We should not compare this term with the fruit “lime” because it is completely unrelated to lime water that we talk here. Pure lime water is colorless. It has a slight earthy smell with a bitter alkaline taste. We can produce this solution via stirring calcium hydroxide with pure water and then we should filter off the excess calcium hydroxide that remains undissolved. Therefore, we can get a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide. The common name of this solution is “milk of lime”. The normal pH of this solution is 12.4. this means it has a basic nature. There are many important health benefits of this solution;
- It can promote our water consumption
- Helps in digestion
- Also, it can reduce the chance of having a cancer
- Improves skin quality
- It promotes weight loss
What is the Difference Between Slaked Lime and Lime Water?
Slaked lime is hydrated calcium hydroxide whereas lime water is a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide. Furthermore, slaked lime has calcium hydroxide in its unsaturated form while lime water has calcium hydroxide in its saturated form in the chemical nature of each these solutions. Similarly, we produce slaked lime from calcium oxide whereas we produce lime water from calcium hydroxide. Below inforgraphic presents more details on the difference between slaked lime and lime water in tabular form.
Summary – Slaked Lime vs Lime Water
Both slaked lime and lime water has calcium hydroxide. The key difference between slaked lime and lime water is that we produce slaked lime by adding water to calcium oxide whereas the lime water is produced via stirring calcium hydroxide in pure water.
Reference:
1. “Slaked Lime.” Nordkalk. Available here
2. Fletcher, Jenna. “12 Health Benefits of Lime Water.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International. Available here
Image Courtesy:
1.”The lime cycle”By Peter Bell – Own work, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia