Utilizing tiny pieces of a specific resin that resembles sand, water treatment experts can get rid of hardness ions through a process known as "softening" where magnesium and calcium carbonate ions can be exchanged with sodium and demineralization by employing ion exchange resins that can remove all minerals that are dissolved from the water creating a final product that could be significantly less dissolved than pure water.

It is because these Ion exchange resins function as chemical sponges, capturing contaminants through the transfer or exchange of positively or negatively charged ions present in water. You can buy deionized water from ion exchange resin factories.

There are two main kinds of Ion exchange resins. The cation resin will exchange positively charged ions while anion resins swap negative Ions. The resins are usually installed in tanks where wastewater or municipal water is cleaned in particular and when the exchange happens, impurities are transferred into the resins.

The resins are processed chemically "cleaned" or recycled to eliminate the impurities that are dissolved and reused with no reduction in their capability to filter water. Regeneration can take place at the site or at the location of a vendor (called "service deionization" or "exchange deionization").

The exchange removes undesirable ions from water while replacing them with beneficial ones generated by the resins. These resin applications are utilized extensively to maintain the quality and purity of factories or pharmaceutical processes and even nuclear power plants.