Over 1.2 billion people around the globe don’t have access to potable water. Many of them live in the continent of Africa. So it should come as no surprise that a solution to this problem might come from an inventor who lives there. Meet Dr. Eugene Cloete. A microbiologist by training, Cloete is currently the Dean of Natural Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch, just outside Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to his teaching ability, Dr. Cloete apparently has a knack for invention. With nine patents to his name, the first of which he earned at the age of 23, Eugene has adopted a way of thinking different than that of most peoples’. “[creativity is] like reading and writing,” said Cloete, “the more you use it, the better you get.” With much of South Africa’s tap water riddled with disease-causing bacteria, heavy metals, and pesticide residue, something needed to be done. In short, Dr. Cloete has invented a disposable filter, which looks very similar to a tea bag, to filter water as it is poured from a bottle. Each filter is capable of ridding bacteria, heavy metals, and harmful chemicals from about 15 liters of water before it needs to be thrown away. Cloete, an expert on inhibiting growth of bacterial slime, says he came up with the idea while on a faculty tour of his current department. He happened to notice a tea bag sitting on the break room counter when he started to explore the idea. It wasn’t until he watched a presentation at the university during which a student demonstrated how to spin nanofibers – filaments finer than human hair – that he figured out how to do it. He combined this technology with both that of the anti-bacterial membranes he had already been working on, and the traditional water filtration component activated carbon to yield the filter. Since announcing the invention in July, Dr. Cloete and his team of two post-doctoral colleges have received hundreds of inquiries from excited philanthropists, aid organizations, and retailers. This little tea bag is sure to save lives.
Category: Water Filters Articles
Canadian Firm Pioneers Green Water Technology
One of the classic problems plaguing mankind in the modern age is the facilitation of infrastructure, that is, the purveyance of essential services, in a way that negatively affects the environment and others as little as possible. The utilization of nearly every resource we use – from the most obvious, gasoline, to those less-often considered such as this one: water – exhibits negative externalities on the environment. Traditional water services make quite a bit of use of fossil fuels. In many states, it’s coal and oil which power water treatment plants (either directly or indirectly), gasoline or diesel which is burned in transport trucks, and electricity, however it may be procured, which heats water throughout our homes. Recognizing this, one Canadian water-treatment company has taken a step in the right direction. Tec-Water Supplies, Inc., of Saskatchewan, Canada has suggested the use of surface water as a main drinking water source instead of ground water. Doing so promises to supply entire communities with water on an “as needed” basis, from local supplies. This will reduce the need for staffing at larger, remote water treatments plants, and will cut transport costs and pollution. Tec-Water’s patented technology, named the “Floc System 100” removes the turbidity usually present in local surface water which made it impossible to process. So impressed with the prospect of supplying entire communities with local drinking water is the Canadian government that they’ve granted Tec-Water $120,000 to conduct a field-test demonstration at the “Sun Dale” resort community on “Last Resort Lake,” in the middle of the province. The test of 300 homes is hoped to form the foundation for a larger-scale implementation of the technology. As quick as we are to create environmental problems, we can solve them when we just try hard enough. Tec-Water Systems, Inc. proved it.
Nylon Filter Housings Offer Economical Alternative
Traditionally, water filter housings to be used in high-temperature applications needed to be constructed of stainless or carbon steel. They were difficult and costly to produce, they were subject to oxidization (the result of years of exposure to chemicals and reaction-catalyzing temperatures), and they would retain heat even hours after the water supply had been shut off, making maintenance time consuming. In recent years however, an alternative to these costly housings has arrived: the nylon filter. Actually composed of a glass-reinforced nylon, these filter housings are more than capable of performing the same tasks of their now-outdated steel counterparts, housing standard high-temperature sediment and carbon filter cartridges with ease. Not only are nylon filter housings cheaper to purchase and maintain, but many models can withstand the same high temperatures as traditional steel housings – in most cases, Nylon filters are also ideally suited to industrial applications. Though they should not be used with ketones, an excellent chemical compatibility allows glass-reinforced nylon filter housings to handle organic solvents, sea water, alcohol, petroleum, and vegetable oils. New developments continue to be made in filtration systems each year, making purchase, maintenance, and repair easier and more cost effective than ever.
Treating Your Water with Oil Absorption
In applications where oil and other hydrocarbons are present in a water supply, it is especially beneficial to make use of a filter designed especially for this purpose. Doing so will not only effectively clean the water supply, but it will improve the life of subsequent filters and filtration systems down-line. Oil absorbing cartridges are made either of activated carbon or, more recently, modified cellulose media, which is extremely effective in reducing levels of hydrocarbons in a water supply, leaving it markedly cleaner, and better-suited for a number of applications, including: gas/oil facilities, surface water runoff, machine shops, factories, and car/truck washes. Activated carbon is a charcoal that is processed to make it highly porous. Coal, wood, and coconut shell are among the most commonly used materials in making an active carbon because their porosity gives them a very high surface area. In fact, the surface area of 1 gram active carbon equals to around 500 m².
Activated Carbon Filters
Active carbon shows hydrophobic and oleophilic properties, making it perfect for oil absorption applications. Oil and other chemicals cling to the carbon filter, while water is allowed to pass through the pores. Impurities that cling to the filter can clog the pores however, rendering the filter ineffective.
Modified Cellulose-Based Filters
Modified cellulose-based filters, on the other hand, chemically bond with hydrocarbons, resulting in instantaneous absorption – one more effective than activated carbon. In fact, modified cellulose media technology effectively reduces hydrocarbon levels by 95% in a single filtration pass, and hold 250-300 percent of its own weight with no release of removed hydrocarbons Both these filters are unfortunately, are incapable of removing dissolved impurities or salts. They cannot be used where high quality purification is required. However, they remain a cheap, effective, and easy-to-maintain filters solution to oil contamination within a filtration system.
Point of Entry Filters (POE) vs. Point of Use Filters (POU)
In many commercial applications, several water filters, including those which are dedicated to specific pieces of machinery, are needed. In these cases, individual filters, known as “point of use” (POU) water filters are located inline just before the water is dispersed or enters the machinery for which the water is intended. As POU filters are usually application specific, they can be tailored to the needs of the user, and are often used in place of a generic reverse osmosis system. This fact makes a standard POU water filter easier to maintain, but usually more expensive. Because of this, it behooves the business owner to take measures against the premature degradation of the POU water filter. The easiest way to accomplish this is to install a “point of entry” (POE) water filter. POE water filters perform water filtration for the entire commercial water service. They are responsible for purifying the water supply to all faucets, pieces of machinery, and toilets. The advantage of this approach to water filtration is first that only one system must be purchased for an entire service, and second, that it greatly improves the life of any other filters present down-line. The most popular POE filters used are either sediment prefilters, or carbon filters.
- Sediment filters are responsible for removing sediment that can clog softeners, prematurely foul carbon filters, or ruin the down-line plumbing. In addition, they reduce TDS (total dissolved solids) or many other harmful chemicals like nitrate, nitrites, etc.
- Carbon filters are effective for certain trouble water conditions such as bad taste or odor.
Still other POE filters are designed as an entire system. These units typically employ a four-stage filtration process. The first stage of filtration removes sediment in the water that may clog the filter, reducing its effectiveness. The second stage uses a chemical process called water atomization to alter the molecular structure of chlorine and turn it into the harmless molecule, zinc chloride. The third and fourth stages of filtration involve activated carbon filters to filter pesticides, and other harmful chemicals. By removing chlorine and other harmful chemicals at the point-of-entry, the whole service is provided with cleaner, healthier water at a reduced cost to the business owner. Pre-filters are typically much less expensive than down-line, application specific filters, making their replacement cheaper than that of the filters the POE filter is saving.
Canadian Company Pioneers Oil-Separation Technology
News stories this year have brought the issue of oil contamination of water to the forefront for even the least interested of parties. In fact, the recovery process since the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion on April 20th of this year was the top story of nearly every 5 o’clock news program around the country for several months. Questions of how best to contain the spill, cap the well, and clean up the gulf have been especially important as we attempt to ascertain the true effects of the contamination on our seas and ocean life. So far, no one seems to have a “magic bullet.” That all may change however, as a new oil and water separation technology, pioneered by Canada’s Cancen Oil and Wescorp Energy, Inc. has been showing some promising results. Still in its preliminary stages of testing, the “H2Omaxx” system is outperforming even its creators’ expectations. “We are very pleased with the preliminary results from the unit’s operation,” said Cancen CEO Keith Talbot, “H2Omaxx has been effectively processing a wide variety of waste streams from the Alberta oil sands, which are considered to be some of the dirtiest and most difficult water to clean in the oil industry. H20maxx is successfully cleaning produced water — which contained in excess of 25% oil and 10% solids and also contained asphaltines and grease — to new, higher levels once thought unattainable with conventional methods.” The H2Omaxx system utilizes tiny bubbles of nitrogen gas – ranging from one micron down to a nanometer – to lift oil droplets to the surface of a holding tank that can then be skimmed off. While still in its initial phase of testing, the unit is showing promising results that both its creators and onlookers alike can’t help but “wonder if” could be signs of prospective application outside of oil sands. Wescorp has designed the H2Omaxx technology unit in a variety of sizes, including a mobile unit and commercial units. With the ability to process up to 65,000 barrels a day, the commercial unit could certainly be used in an oil cleanup situation. The oil spill is long from gone. In fact, nearly 25% of the oil calculated to have exited the well over the last 4 months is sitting nearly a mile under the surface of the ocean in a 22 mile-long strip. Hopefully, with the help of technologies like the H2Omaxx, we can reclaim our oceans for the environment.
What’s Really In Your Drinking Water?
Many of us take the quality and purity of our water for granted. While the public water supply is generally safe for most people, it is not always as harmless as we’d like to believe. In addition to additives like chorine and fluoride, tap water may contain various minerals, microorganisms, and chemicals. Regulating Water Quality The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) closely monitors the quality of public drinking water. Monitoring must adhere to the Safe Drinking Water Act, which specifies the method for choosing which contaminants are monitored and determining what contaminant levels are acceptable. Sometimes, the acceptable level is set at zero, but water treatment plants cannot always achieve this level of purity. This disparity is especially common for contaminants that pose a particular hazard for children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. Currently the EPA monitors approximately 90 different substances. However, over 260 different substances have been found in U.S. tap water. Some of these may simply be a nuisance, while others can pose a health risk. Meanwhile certain contaminants, such as lead, may be introduced through plumbing in individual households. Common Tap Water Contaminants Continue reading What’s Really In Your Drinking Water?
Get Green with Home Water Filtration
Once considered costly and cumbersome, residential water filtrations systems are now affordable and environmentally friendly options. Over time, they help homeowners save money and protect the environment, giving people a greater ability to “go green.” Invest in Long-Term Water Quality Everyone wants the safest and purest drinking water for their families. As a result, many households consistently spend large quantities of money on bottled water. They want the assurance that they are putting clean, healthy water into their bodies. Yet buying bottled water isn’t enough. Families still cook, clean, and bathe with tap water. Why spend so much money on bottled water, when it doesn’t even completely protect from contamination? Instead, a residential water filtration system removes contaminants from the entire water supply, rather than just from drinking water. A home water filter system offers consumers an excellent opportunity to reduce bottled water expenses and ensure the highest-quality water: Continue reading Get Green with Home Water Filtration