Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3R3S1NAZ1X2NVQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQ YIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nwater112.xml



Bottle makes dirty water drinkable


By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:30am BST 13/09/2007

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The way fresh water is supplied to disaster-hit regions could be revolutionised after an Ipswich-based businessman invented a �190 bottle that makes foul-smelling water drinkable in seconds.
Michael Pritchard hopes that the bottle could be a life-saver for refugees in disaster regions where access to clean drinking water is vital.
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" hspace="0" width="258"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2" width="8"> </td><td width="250"><center>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/grap.../nwater112.jpg</center></td></tr><tr><td class="caption"><center>The Life Saver bottle, which can clean up the dirtiest water being demonstrated</center></td></tr></tbody></table>However, the military are already latching on to his idea. Four hours after Mr Pritchard launched his new "Life Saver" bottle at the DESI defence show in London yesterday, he sold out his entire 1,000 stock. "I am bowled over," he said.

Military chiefs are excited because the bottles, which can distill either 4,000 litres or 6,000 litres without changing the filter, will have huge benefits for soldiers who hate drinking iodine-flavoured water.
In July a protype of the bottle was voted "Best Technological Development" at the Soldier Technology conference.
Mr Pritchard, who runs a water treatment business in Ipswich, was inspired after watching coverage of the tsunami in south-east Asia on Boxing Day 2004 and of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana the following year.
He was amazed to see refugees waiting for days to get any fresh water.
<!--MPU BLOCKED BY PAGECLASS-->He said: "Something had to be done. It took me a little while and some very frustrating prototypes but eventually I did it."
Conventional filters can cut out bacteria measuring more than 200 nanometres but not viruses, which typically are 25 nanometres long.
Mr Pritchard's bottle can clean up any water - including faecal matter - using a filter that cuts out anything longer than 15 nanometres, which means that viruses can be filtered out without the use of chemicals.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be looking into these. Any mention of cost? I believe there was something called the "Lifestraw"?

It's seems to be a really inexpensive thing along the same lines. But I think it's hard to get them unless your a charity or aid agency.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

The article says it's �190, which is close to $400.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

I'm a little skeptical about these claims because they sound too good to be true.

Katadyn makes very good quality water filters and this water bottle filter blows them away. Katadyn water bottle filters filter down to 300 nanometer and are good for only 100 liter with decent quality water. These run $30 - $50.

This one claims to filter to 15 nanometers and is good for 4-6000 liter. The cost is high, but I just don't see it lasting that long using sewage water like it claims.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

Did anyone see the PBS special where some West Virginia town's water looks clear in the glass (although they reported it smelled bad) but turned black if peptobismal was added. Any chem majors/profs that can explain that type of reaction? The local coal mine company accursed of damaging the water table. And the owner of the mine is a local who has a house a top the hill (I know I know, everyone has a house on a hill in West Virginia :D).

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

How do the Katadyn filters compare to the Brita filters? I use the Britas here at home. The Brita doc doesn't specify nano levels just ANSI/NSF standards suppported (No. 53 and No. 42).

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

Brita filters have ion exchange resin and have a carbon filter.
This is how the brita works http://www.brita.net/brita_informations.html

Katadyn uses ceramic filters with carbon in it. British Berkefeld is pretty much the same kind of filter as katadyn and here is a faq about that.
http://www.stpaulmercantile.com/berkeyfaq.htm

This is from the katadyn site: http://www.katadyn.com/water-knowled...hnologies.html

Mechanical water treatment

Katadyn Ceramic
Ceramic filters have a micro porous structure with impregnated silver which delays the growth of bacteria. The pore-size of Katadyn ceramic filters is 0.2 micron (0.0002 mm). Bacteria range in size from 0.2 to 5 micron and like protozoa (1 � 15 micron), are efficiently filtered out. Ceramic filters can be mechanically regenerated and the filter capacity is measurable.

Activated Carbon
Activated carbon is used for its ability to reduce harmful organic and inorganic substances in the water. It removes unpleasant tastes, odours, chlorine, pesticides (lindane, DDT) and trihalomethanes (THMs). These substances adhere to the large surface area of the activated carbon. Activated carbon granulate cannot be regenerated.

Glassfiber
Superfine glassfiber, within two supporting layers, forms a depth filter. Nominal pore size of 0.3 micron mechanically filters all bacteria and protozoa. The flexible glassfiber is pleated resulting in an extremely large surface area and a very high capacity to absorb dirt.






I'm pretty sure these water filters have been discussed on the forum before.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

Won't stop viruses. Boil your water for a good 10 minutes prior to filtering (obviously let it cool down before filtering), this will cause proteins to break down, or be so damaged that most viruses will de-activate.

Re: Bottle makes dirty water drinkable...
 

thanks for the info & links. so much to study.