New Water Treatment on the market soon?

“FYI. Kinda cool and probably light weight.

Powder makes dirty water drinkable
Knight Ridder Newspapers Service - 1/5/05

PHILADELPHIA - They took a bucket of muddy, bacteria-laden water. Added a bit of white powder. Stirred.
And within minutes, standing amid 100 refugees in war-torn Liberia, researchers from Johns Hopkins University had produced what seemed like a magic trick:

Clear, drinkable water.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw it," Hopkins researcher Shannon Doocy said of her work last year. "The people in Liberia couldn't believe it."

The powder, developed by Procter & Gamble Co. with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now headed for its biggest test yet: the tsunami zone.

Relief agencies, led by AmeriCares of Stamford, Conn., are sending over at least 15 million packets of the stuff -- enough to purify 40 million gallons of water. Health officials Tuesday said the lack of potable water represented a grave threat to survivors. Water and sewer plants have shut down, and pipes are ruptured, leading some victims to drink sewage water.

Relief workers have been treating water for decades with chlorine bleach, which kills most germs but does not improve the water's appearance.

The new powder, called PUR, contains chlorine but has other ingredients that give it two key advantages. PUR gets rid of toxic "heavy metals," such as arsenic and mercury, and it makes muddy water look clean -- a key to winning acceptance from those who may be leery of aid from outsiders.

"People need to believe that they're drinking water that's purified," said Jeff Albert, an environmental scientist at Brown University who is helping raise money for AmeriCares.

The added ingredients -- primarily iron sulfate and clay -- cause particles in the water to clump together and settle to the bottom, so they can be strained out through cloth. The process, known as flocculation, is used in many municipal water-treatment plants, but the powder has not previously been made in small packets for widespread public use.#”

“Seems like someone posted this before. It was being studied for military applications I think.”

“I think that was different. I think that was a chemically-aided osmosis filter, while this is just plain flocculation, with chlorine added for purification.”

“I think you're thinking of that purification membrane, Currahee. That system allowed water of any quality to be added, and in the tests that were done an edible MRE was produced in the end. The powder sounds even better. Link for the membrane here:

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,SoldierTech_HydratingPouch,,00.html”

“Darn, bit beat me to it by 4 mins...”

“Sounds diff from the mil bags.
The keys will be how heavy and how bulky and the cost.”

“I figured it out. I remember the thread about the military bags, but was confusing it with something I saw about the PUR powder on The Discovery Channel some time ago.”

“After you use the powder and let the water settle, you STILL have to filter it.”

“Considering what's going on over there, Stovie, this puts them at a mucho better vantage point, I would think...”

“Oh yeah, definiately. If they add the powder to large batches of water it should be easy to scoop or siphon the clear water off the top. SS is right that it might still be impractical for bping.”

“Damn treeman. EVERYTHING doesn't have to be political.
'New Water Treatment on the market soon?' is the title of this thread, and what I am posting about.”

“Is the sarcasm font broken again?”

“Sorry, I thought we were talking about the tsunami victims. Don't be so touchy. It wasn't a dig at you...”

“Yeah, but it only has to be filtered to remove the solids. You can do that with a bandana or coffee filter. Mucho more convenient (and faster, and lighter) than sanitary filtering.”