Water Security for the Family and the Individual by Frank A. Brigano

Dosing Pumps &
Water Purifiers
INDUSTRY
Y
L I T E
Figure 4: KX Technologies LLC’s FACT® Media Filter
Water Security for the Family and the Individual
By Frank A. Brigano and Thomas A. Burke
“Consumers may want to
consider whether they should
have their own certified
filtration system.”
60
EverythingAboutWater | OCTOBER 2010
Most nations have an extensive infrastructure
that supplies water throughout a community.
This infrastructure provides a foundation for
development as an assured supply of water allows
for greater social and economic activity. Whether
this water is clean and acceptable for drinking water
purposes is a wholly different matter. Realistically,
water infrastructure can be compromised by floods
or storms that allow untreated water to seep into
the system, may be accidentally damaged, subject
to leaks and breaks, fabricated of inferior quality
materials, incorrectly installed, subject to operator
error, or perhaps using source water that is not
acceptable for drinking. The question in these
situations becomes how to ensure water security
for the family and the individual knowing the
water infrastructure may not be completely safe
for drinking?
primary water source, in many cases water must be
manually hauled from long distances. These water
sources may not provide clean water that can be
used for drinking water purposes. This water may
be contaminated with human or animal feces or by
any number of other disease-causing organisms.
Where water infrastructure is not in place, local
communities must rely on other sources to provide
water. In India, this situation is faced by over 200
million people on a daily basis. Individual wells,
surface-sourced water or rainwater may be the
Drinking water from a municipal system where the
infrastructure may be compromised could certainly
cause unwanted illness. Consumers who are ill,
young, elderly, or who have compromised immune
systems are the most susceptible to severe illness
The Indian travel agents' websites have several
precautions against drinking local waters, such as
insisting on drinking bottled water as well as
completely avoiding water from roadside vendors
selling water pumped up from the vendor's tank,
as shown in Figure 1 or from public water sources
as shown in Figure 2. Once again, the question
arises: how to ensure water security for the family
www.kxtech.com
and individual?
Dosing Pumps &
Water Purifiers
INDUSTRY
Y
L I T E
Figure 1: Roadside Well Pump with Woman Pumping
Water, New Delhi, India, February 2010
Figure 2: Roadside Public Drinking Water Source,
New Delhi, India, February 2010
in this scenario. The best protection for these consumers is to ensure they are
drinking clean, safe water.
In addition to carbon block technology, FACT® Media may also provide
microbiological reduction. KX Technologies’ FACT® Media is made using
various adsorbents immobilized by fibrillated nanofibers. The Media is
produced in a wet laid process yielding an extremely uniform media, where high
percentages of very small adsorbents can be immobilized down to 1 micron
average particle size efficiently. FACT® Media can be chemically treated for
microbiological filtration, the small pore size coupled with the microbiological
chemistry and large pore area allows for low pressure drop and high activity.
Microbiological filters are constructed to flow under gravity and pressure
conditions (for both high and low pressure), and offer high sediment capacity
and longer filter life. Figure 4 shows a typical FACT® Media Filter, cutaway to
show construction detail.
Consumers may want to consider whether they should have their own certified
filtration system to provide filtered water to ensure water security. A filtration
system in this case might also be certified to reduce other contaminants such
as Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) which might be leftover from nearby
industrial use.
Several technologies may provide some level of filtration, including reverse
osmosis, hollow fiber, and carbon block filtration systems. Figure 3 shows
an under sink dual filtration system designed for pressurized water systems
featuring a certified microbiological purifying encapsulated carbon block filter.
This system has been certified by the Water Quality Association to provide
99.9999% Bacteria Reduction, 99.99% Virus Reduction, and 99.95% Cyst
Reduction, and bears the WQA Purifier Gold Seal. Additionally, the system is
certified to reduce Chlorine, Sediment, Lead, and VOCs. The system will also
reduce Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.
The system’s carbon block has similar technology to other carbon block
systems that have been certified by the State of California that meet the EPA/
California requirements for fail-safe
mechanism. The system includes a
patented fail-safe shutoff mechanism
ensuring no microbiologically
contaminated water ever passes
through the system. This type of
encapsulated system might require
a booster pump to be used in areas
of India where water pressure is
not sufficient. By comparison,
hollow fiber or other membrane
technologies are not able to meet
this shutoff requirement and as
such, consumers will not know if
they are receiving contaminated
Figure 3: EcoWater Systems LLC
Model EPS 1000
water.
Drinking water infrastructure has been instrumental in providing safe drinking
water supplies for generations of communities throughout the world. Being
subject to deterioration, accidents, wear and tear, natural disasters and operator
error, drinking water infrastructure is no different than any other man-made
construction. Customers who receive drinking water from municipal systems
or who use their own private well must determine whether additional filtration
is necessary to ensure a safe supply. Just the possibility of contamination
might be a strong incentive for people who would not want to be unsure of
their supply. For the millions of consumers who do not have access to drinking
water infrastructure and must rely on other sources, being able to ensure water
security for their family is of utmost importance, a certified drinking water
filtration system can provide this security.
About the Author
Frank A. Brigano, Ph.D., is Vice President, Technology for KX Technologies LLC. Thomas A. Burke
is Product/Marketing Manager for KX Technologies LLC. KX Technologies was originally formed
in 1989 as a Limited Partnership between Exxon Chemical Corporation and KT Corporation.
In 2007 Marmon Water LLC acquired the assets of KX Industries, LP, with the business going
forward as KX Technologies LLC. Marmon Water companies operate within three groups. The
Residential Group includes U.S.- based EcoWater Systems and affiliates in China, Singapore,
Europe and Canada. The Separations Technology Group now includes KX Technologies as well
as Graver Technologies and several license and joint venture agreements with companies such as
Hyflux. The Industrial Group includes Ecodyne Limited, Ecodyne Water Treatment, Graver Water
Systems, Ecodyne MRM and Ecodyne UET, and Amarillo Gear Company.
We look forward to your feedback on this article. To know more about the author, you can write
to us at [email protected]
EverythingAboutWater | OCTOBER 2010
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