Water Filters

In very poor countries, the family that has to walk miles to fetch drinking water from a well or a stream may be the lucky one. In many villages, the water source is a filthy pond trod by animals and people, or a mud puddle out next to the yam field.

As a result, about 6,000 people a day — most of them children — die from water-borne diseases.

Vestergaard Frandsen, a Danish textile company, has come up with a new invention meant to render dangerous water drinkable.

The invention is called Life-straw, a plastic tube with seven filters: graduated meshes with holes as fine as 6 microns (a human hair is 50 to 100 microns), followed by resin impregnated with iodine and another of activated carbon. It can be worn around the neck and lasts a year.

Lifestraw isn’t perfect, but it filters out at least 99.99 per cent of many parasites and bacteria, the demons in most fatal cases of diarrhea.

It is less effective against viruses, which are much smaller and cause diseases like polio and hepatitis. It does not filter out metals like arsenic, and it has a slight iodine aftertaste (not necessarily a bad thing in the large stretches of the globe where people have iodine deficiency).

Source and more info: thestar

In the wake of oyster-bed closings in the Okatie River, the Coastal Conservation League and local environmentalists are calling on the state to enforce water-quality violations originating from a development they say is polluting the river.

Portions of the Okatie were closed to shellfish harvesting recently because of high levels of fecal coliform bacteria stemming from stormwater runoff.

The environmental groups say the problem is originating from Berkeley Hall, the residential development that borders a large stretch of the river. The community, they say, consistently has been in violation of water-quality standards established in its state-issued permit and reinforced in a 2001 lawsuit settlement agreement.

They also say the state and the community knew of the problem for years and did nothing to stop it.

But the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control says there isn’t enough evidence to show the problems are coming from Berkeley Hall.

Scott Irwin, the general manager of Berkeley Hall, declined to comment. He referred questions to the community’s stormwater-management plan developer, Savannah-based Thomas & Hutton Engineering. Several members of the firm didn’t return messages left at their offices Friday.

Source and more info: islandpacket

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that 84 percent of Americans believe that their home’s tap water is polluted. While many consumers treat their drinking water using filtration pitchers or faucet filters, PurePlex has developed a whole-house solution that produces clean, filtered water from every tap. The PurePlex Whole-House Water Filtration Systems are offered Factory Direct through an all-new website at PurePlex.com.

(PRWEB) October 13, 2006 — Consumer awareness of the potential for sediments, chlorine and other contaminants in common household tap water continues to rise as more water filtration products are promoted through nationwide advertising. Though most consumers who filter their water do so with faucet filters or filtration pitchers, there exists technology to clean all of a home’s water at the source, producing clean, filtered water from every faucet in the house. With an all-new website at PurePlex.com, water treatment systems provider PurePlex is leading the charge to bring these whole house water filters to the approximately 80 million American households that can benefit from complete whole-house water treatment.

Source and more info: prweb

As with most golf courses, Atlantis Country Club in Tuckerton, N.J. was plagued with water quality problems. Providing irrigation water for the sprinkler system were two sources, a pond and a canal.

The water from both sources was highly contaminated with suspended solids, including silt, sand, leaves, etc. Due to the lack of filtration, a large number of problems resulted from clogged heads. Not only did this result in increased maintenance requirements, it could result in inadequate irrigation as well.

The solution was to install two ORIVAL self cleaning water filters, one on each pumping station. The filters, one 8 inch, which filters 1300 gpm and one 4 inch, which filters 350 gpm, were both provided with the standard control system OR-E-1, which provides regulation of the filter rinse cycles.

Source and more information: wateronline

TOYODA TRW is a major supplier of power steering pumps for the automotive market. We have only two downtime periods per year, so facility equipment has to run for six months with no interruption.

Contamination of the cooling water system was a continual problem, as anyone with cooling towers knows. Airborne particulate, microbiological growth, pollen, cottonwood and other materials collected in the cooling tower. Flowing through the pipes, the water picked up rust, iron chips, scale and other corrosion byproducts. Combined, these particles reduced the efficiency of our heat exchangers and machines. It was a full time job for one person to clean individual machine strainers, filters and heat exchangers.

We investigated several types of filtration equipment, including sand filters, centrifugal separators, motorized filters and, finally, the Orival filters. We wanted an automatic, self cleaning filter which requires no external power, is able to remove particles of any specific gravity, even lighter than water, does not interrupt system flow, requires minimal maintenance and offers the lowest operating cost. The Orival filter combines all of these qualities.

Our first purchase from Orival was a 4″ Model OR-04-PE, rated at 350 gpm and equipped with a 120 micron fine screen. We started up this unit with little assistance from the engineering staff at Orival. The filter was in operation for about 4 years, with absolutely no service requirements.

Source and more information: wateronline

Schroeder Industries, a recognized leader in filtration and fluid conditioning products, introduces the Backflush Water Filter (BWF) designed specifically for water-based fluids requiring backflushing capability.

The BWF is a dual stage filter ideal for extracting solid particles from low viscosity fluids. The system provides continuous filtration throughout the backflushing process, making it ideal for systems requiring continuous operation. Additionally, the filters require little maintenance, thereby providing an increase in efficiency and reduction in operating costs. The BWF boasts minimal pressure drop and is rated for 75 gpm up to 1000 psi.

The rugged BWF features brass construction, stainless steel elements, and a durable steel handle with locking mechanism control.

Source and more information: waterandwastewater

The filter was more effective than others now available, said senior researcher Dr Ngo Quoc Buu.

Importantly, it worked at a very low pressure which also reduced the danger of its failing.

“The filter helps to refine colours in water much better than other filters,” he said.

Project manager Dr Nguyen Hoai Chau said a striking advantage of the nano filter was that is was not necessary to add a chemical or micro-organism to make it more effective.

Source and more information: vietnamnet

A Lancashire abattoir will save 4500 a week after creating 10 ponds and lagoons to purify its waste water.

Rose County Foods, part of the Irish meat processor Dunbia, put the bulldozers to work in over 8ha (20 acres) of land surrounding the plant to create a reed-bed water treatment system.

Last week saw the first of the company’s dirty water trickle into the primary lagoon as Environment Agency staff granted persmission for the process to start. In coming months more of the company’s waste water will be fed into the system.

Stan Ayrton of Rose County Foods, who has overseen the project, says he’s been amazed at the influx of birds and wildlife even though the water levels are still low.

Source and more information: fwi

3M Co., the maker of Cuno and Aqua-Pure water filters, sued units of Clorox Co. and Sears Holding Corp., accusing them of infringing two patents on a cartridge-based purification system.

3M, based in Maplewood, is asking for unspecified damages and an order blocking Clorox’s Brita Products and retailer Sears from selling products that violate the patents. The complaint, filed Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, also requests a jury trial.

The patents cover a water-filtering system that allows cartridges to be changed without drips. 3M, the maker of Post-It notes and Scotch tape, added water-filtration systems to its product line when it bought Cuno in August 2005 for $1.29 billion, the company’s biggest acquisition.

Source and more information: twincities

A fix for a drinking water shortage in Longview may come sooner than expected.

The city’s public works director, Jeff Cameron, says the system could be back to full strength by early August. “During hot weather when demand goes up it’s pushing the limits of our ability to maintain capacity and meet demand,” says Cameron.

One of the eight water treatment filters broke in May when there was an upheaval in the cement floor of the filter for some unknown reason.

The city put out a conservation request to residents before the 100 degree weather in June. “It was not as much as a conservation effort as I hoped,” says Cameron. “Normally we don’t run the plant 24 hours, on that day we did run 24 hours.”

Longview homeowner Steve Stuart is taking steps to conserve water. He’s letting his lawn grow longer, “It doesn’t brown as fast”, says Stuart, “the dew in the morning or something like that keeps it wetter.”

The parts to fix the filter don’t come off the hardware store shelf, and they must be manufactured. The wait for the parts to arrive still means weeks more of conservation.

Source and more info: katu