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VTI, a small Czech Republic company, has a device (with actual commercial installations) which can make drinking water out of any liquid dirt, like pig sludge. They claim it -unlike reverse osmosis- needs very little power, no chemicals involved, only physics.
From their website:
The core of our device is the Technology of Hybrid Asymmetric Selective Membrane Separation - THASMS, which was developed over time by our research team. The AQ3 device is suitable for use both in households and industrial units, where it eliminates problems with water quality, and with extremely low energy consumption.
Videos of the device in action purifying pig slurry (subtitled in English) are available on the references page of the website.
Are there more companies and products using this technology?
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:15PM
While the end product might be perfectly fine, I'm not sure I could bring myself to drink it knowing the source...
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 5, Informative) by Techwolf on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:23PM
Considering some of the sources of tap water, why is that an issue?
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:29PM
don't make me think about it!
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday April 22 2015, @06:08AM
Really? Portland has "flushed" their 38-million gallon reservoir after a single individual pee'd in it. Twice.
But only for human pee.
Shaff [David Shaff, Portland's water bureau administrator] told the Mercury that the reservoir is not shut down for nature's transgressions. "If we did that, we'd be shutting it off all the time. We fish out animals or things that have blown in all the time," Shaff said.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/draining-reservoir-after-urination-incident-shows-tenuous-grasp-of-science/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:31PM
Drink water from a surface reservoir? Think of all the dead fish, fish waste, bird droppings, and other wonderful things that find their way into the water. In NYC they sometimes have to inject chlorine at specific points in the system to combat bird feces overload during migration season.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:43PM
Ag runoff too. If you live in an area with pig farms in the watershed, and you drink out of a surface source, you're drinking pig waste (and all kinds of other agricultural waste).
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @06:00PM
While the end product might be perfectly fine
Don't you mean "perfectly swine"?
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday April 22 2015, @12:21PM
Don't be such a boar.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Insightful) by caseih on Tuesday April 21 2015, @07:52PM
Your sentiment is shared by many, but unfortunately it's a sentiment you and others are going to have to get over.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:31PM
Selective Membrane Separation
That is exactly what a RO system is...
Now WRT energy to pressurize and pumping losses and waste volume, that is a stereotypical engineering tradeoff game where you can min or max any of those. So I'm not surprised you can do RO with low energy... at a certain tradeoff of waste/bypass water, etc.
There is the separate engineering tradeoff of doing something unusual or amusing versus membrane lifespan.
So from what little I can find, its a RO system like any other, although its operating point is one that uses less energy/lower pressures and the marketing is distancing itself from more traditionally operated RO systems. So from a chemist or engineering perspective its just another RO plant, although from a marketing perspective its all greenwashed. Its like marketing "its not a nuke plant, its a newly trademarked Neutron Recycling Energy Station (tm) with none of the environmental problems of an old fashioned nuclear power plant" when you know damn well its just a greenwashed press release for a stereotypical COTS PWR.
I'm not claiming its a total ripoff (well the marketing might be, but the technology is probably legit)... optimization of engineering operating points is just business as usual, and maybe the usual for RO plants in the future will optimize the many variables at a point that is somewhat less energy intensive than the current best operating point which seems to currently economically favor using enormous amounts of (cheap) energy.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 21 2015, @05:28PM
Selective Membrane Separation
That is exactly what a RO system is...
Possibly. It appears to be a proprietary technology from a vendor whose website isn't in English. So it's really hard to tell what the underlying technology actually is.
To me though, selective membrane seperation implies that the water passes through the membrane leaving the selected contamination behind (basically, filtration). Osmosis, on the other hand, does not involve water passing through the membrane. It's actually the contaminants that pass through the membrane leaving clean water behind (hence "reverse").
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @05:50PM
It's actually the contaminants that pass through the membrane
Incorrect. Osmosis is water (in this case anyway) going through a membrane/barrier (or similar) from the dilute ("purer") side to the not so dilute (more "stuff") side .
Reverse osmosis is water being forced to go through a membrane (or similar) from the not so dilute side to the dilute side.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis#Process [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @06:53PM
From what I understood and which is interesting, they do not force the water through the membrane. And AFAIK, reverse osmosis needs a lot of power to do exactly that, here almost nothing, the water just flows thru the membrane (or filter, if you will).
BTW, the page is in English, click the British flag icon.
(Score: 4, Funny) by morgauxo on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:42PM
Bacon!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @02:53PM
> Are there more companies and products using this technology?
Where do you think Windows 8 comes from?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 21 2015, @03:20PM
Next, someone is going to have to ask which tube Windows 8 was dispensed from. HINT: Not the one that the guy in the video drank from!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @09:57PM
Oblig
XKCDDilbert http://dilbert.com/strip/2012-11-08 [dilbert.com]