Desalinated water is poor in minerals, making it corrosive and unpalatable. A certain degree of remineralization is necessary in order to overcome these problems as well as to meet health requirements. A commonly used remineralization process is to pass desalinated water dosed with either CO2 or H2SO4 through a bed of limestone, reintroducing bicarbonate alkalinity and calcium hardness to the water. The paper presents cumulative experimental evidence confirming the reliability of the kinetic model developed by Yamauchi et al. and Letterman et al. The paper also analyzes the main operational parameters affecting the minimum cost design of a hardening column. Finally, the viability of incorporating a CO2 desorption process so as to reduce alkali consumption is examined.