Cheap Nanotech Filter Clears Hazardous Microbes and Chemicals from Drinking Water

Scientific American ^ | May 7, 2013 | Luciana Gravotta

[neverdem]

A $16 device could provide a family of five with clean water for an entire year

About 780 million people—a tenth of the world’s population—do not have access to clean drinking water. Water laced with contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, lead and arsenic claims millions of lives each year. But an inexpensive device that effectively clears such contaminants from water may help solve this problem.

Thalappil Pradeep and his colleagues at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras developed a $16 nanoparticle water filtration system that promises potable water for even the poorest communities in India and, in the future, for those in other countries sharing the same plight. Although cheap filtration systems have been developed previously, this is the first one to combine microbe-killing capacity with the ability to remove chemical contaminants such as lead and arsenic. Because the filters for microbes and chemicals are separate components, the system can be customized to rid water of microbial contaminants, chemical contaminants or both, depending on the user’s needs...

[phockthis]

sfl

[yarddog]

I grew up in DeFuniak Springs and the water was the best I have ever tasted. I remember when the large Coca-Cola bottling plant turned out so many cokes that I would see their bottles all over the South.

Everyone said Coca-Cola located it their because of the water.

Now my Sister lives in Ft. Walton Beach and their water tastes awful. Panama City Bch is nearly as bad but Panama City is generally OK.

Any of the panhandle towns along the I-10 corridor generally have good water.

[upchuck]

A ceramic filter from Amazon.

Please ping me when you get the results of your before and after test.

Firehouse Subs uses food-grade five gallon buckets for their pickles. They sell the buckets for a nominal sum ($2/ea as I recall) and the money goes to a charity.

With two of these buckets you can set up a gravity filter system. Drill two holes in the bottom of one bucket for the candles. Put a couple of 2x4's on the other bucket. Put the candle bucket on top of the 2x4. Water into the top bucket will be filtered and drizzle into the bottom bucket.

[mnehring]

Here it is.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-352

$29.97 from Cheaper Than Dirt. The filter is a lot larger than how it looks here. You basically put these in food-safe buckets, drilling the hole in the top bucket for the filter and the bottom for the spigot. The filter adapter is the same size and type as a Berkey so they can be interchanged with Berkey replacement filters. The included filter is also silver impregnated to add an extra bacteria killing element. Being .5 micron, it supposedly removes many heavy metals.

Here is a YouTube on putting it together and more info..

[Polynikes]

I have one and it works fine. I had to get it from Amazon. What irks me was I tried to buy it from Cheaper Than Dirt and the SOB’s refused my order because it was from California? I know a lot places won't ship ammo but a water filter?

[mnehring]

It is the damn credit card processors and Paypal. They have started refusing transactions for certain states from companies like CTD. Luckly Amazon is so blanket and you can get almost everything like this there.

However, there would be absolutely nothing illegal about having someone from out of State buy it and ship it to you. It isn’t a controlled item.

[eldoradude]

I tried to buy it from Cheaper Than Dirt and the SOB’s refused my order because it was from California? I know a lot places won't ship ammo but a water filter?

As you probably already know, if you sell to anyone in California you will be harrassed by California Franchise Tax Board. Unless you sell a LOT of stuff in California it is not worth the cost and hassle to do business here. Sucks but I don't blame them.

[reed13k]

Bfl

[mnehring]

Looks like you can get them directly from Monolithic cheaper than CTD (you just have to buy each component separately. Save about $10 off the CTD price.

http://shop.monolithic.com/collections/water-filters-collection

[princeofdarkness]

I grew up in NYC. Their municipal water was noted as one of the best in the world. The water was really very good up until the 90’s. Somehow the quality went downhill and I can’t explain it. The city gets its water from the Catskill reservoirs.

[ChildOfThe60s]

bttt

[Cold Heart]

Bump

[count-your-change]

Mostly old sewage treatment plants dumping into those reservoirs and runoff. Ummmm...tasty!

[itsahoot]

You realize of course that the $16.00 figure only refers to the actual makeup of the product, when pushed into production the cost will necessarily increase to $16,000.00 per gallon of water produced.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[driftdiver]

The water starts out in the reservoir. Then it gets treated with chemicals before being run through a few hundred miles of pipe. Pipe that is decades old, rusty, leaky and maintained by the best union labor available.

[Obadiah]

A good Katadyn personal water filter costs $300+ and to be safe you should still chemically treat the water for viruses. This new technology would be a great, cheap alternative solution if brought into mass production.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

You can get ceramic filters from several prepper sites that use the same basic components as the Berkey systems for $30. I’ll post a link when I’m on a regular computer. You have to build it yourself and supply the buckets.

I have just such a system ready to roll. It took some reearch but it works great...and was very short money to set up.

With three 55 gallon plastic barrels hooked in series via a rack system...replenished with filtered rainwater...I'll have no shortage of potable water. And 165 gallons under 1G provides plenty of pressure.

[Stegall Tx]

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record on these threads, but once again, I'd suggest a slow sand filter (aka biosand filter) as a first-stage filter to get the biggest of the nasties out of the water and leave this to pick up where the slow sand filter leaves off.

To build a slow sand filter, the details are available at http://www.cawst.org/en/resources/pubs/training-materials/file/186-biosand-filter-for-technicians-manual-eng or you can just poke a hole in the bottom of a 5-gallon pail, fill the bottom inch or so of the pail with gravel, fill the rest of the pail with sand, and that's it.

There's more to building a using a working biosand filter, but that's the simplest setup.

[Shimmer1]

Invented it huh. hmmm.