This book can make filthy water drinkable
Scientists have successfully field-tested a book in Africa that can filter polluted water. The pull-out pages of each Drinkable Book can filter a person’s drinking supply for four years.
"In Africa, we wanted to see if the filters would work on 'real water', not water purposely contaminated in the lab,” the Associated Press quoted the designer Dr. Theresa Dankovitch as saying on Sunday.
Each page of the Drinkable Book contains nanoparticles of silver or copper that can kill waterborne bacteria and produce 100 liters of drinkable water. The book also has printed information on water safety and filtering.
"Ions come off the surface of the nanoparticles, and those are absorbed by the microbes," Dankovich explained.
During the field trials in Africa, water contaminated with raw sewage was rendered to a safety level equal to that of the North American tap water.
"One day, while we were filtering lightly contaminated water from an irrigation canal, nearby workers directed us to a ditch next to an elementary school, where raw sewage had been dumped. We found millions of bacteria; it was a challenging sample,” she added.
Small amounts of silver or copper are transferred into the filtered water, but these were well below safety limits, Dankovich noted.
The field trial results were presented at the 250th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
Last year, Dankovitch formed a non-profit company, pAge Drinking Paper, to produce the book. She is currently developing its technology towards a commercial nanoparticle filter designed for household water treatment.
"It's really exciting to see that not only can this paper work in lab models, but it also has shown success with real water sources that people are using," she said.
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