Quenching the Thirst for Potable Water Through Nanotechnology

After our last post discussing how experiments with carbon nanotubes (CNT’s) might greatly improve the effectiveness of reverse osmosis desalination now comes a new report from the Institute of Physics that shows researchers are getting closer to making this a reality. Already over a billion people do not have regular access to clean water and the problem will likely get worse as the demand for drinkable water is expected to grow dramatically in the near future. With natural sources increasingly scarce, this urgent need means there is an intense global interest in any potentially viable forms of water purification.

Right now the main issues preventing RO desalination on a large-scale basis are that the membranes used to perform seawater to freshwater separation do not remove salt ions with enough efficiency and they also require great amounts of energy (and therefore expense) in order to purify the water. Jason Reese, a Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde and also the author of this report, states, “The holy grail of reverse-osmosis desalination is combining high water-transport rates with efficient salt-ion rejection.” Incredibly, these little carbon nanotubes may be able to satisfy both of these requirements for widespread adoption.

Early tests and simulations have shown that CNT membranes could have water permeability that is 20 times greater than today’s materials. Additionally, carbon nanotubes can be chemically tailored to better reject salt ions, thus improving upon the desalination process in multiple key areas.

While it is still early, these features are promising enough that scientists such as Professor Reese feel it is a very real possibility that this application of nanotechnology could be used to curtail our growing water demand.

Read more about this report here.

How NOT to Handle Wastewater Discharge

Here’s further evidence that monitoring your company's waste output is something you should probably keep an eye on…

Yesterday the former environmental, health & safety manager for AMCAN Beverages, Inc. (A subsidiary of Coca-Cola) pled guilty to falsifying reports about their plant's wastewater discharge. He now faces up to 3 years in prison and/or upwards of $250,000 in fines for directing employees to dilute wastewater samples before they were sent for off-site testing and then reporting on the tampered results.  

The company was caught when the City of American Canyon’s own wastewater treatment plant staterd experiencing operational problems relating to Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) measurements and began a covert investigation into industrial discharges in the area, leading them to AMCAN.

If only Captain Planet was still around to call on, he'd take pollution down to zero...

Read more details on the case here.

And yes, we do offer plenty of different products for TSS measurements as well as bench scale systems for municipal/industrial waste and wastewater purification.  

Discount on Water Analysis Filters in March

For the rest of the month we're offering 10% off filters for water analysis! Check out the Sterile MCE Membrane filter as well as the GA-55 and GC-50 Glass Fiber Filters for treating water and wastewater. It's a great opportunity to stock up on any variety of these frequently used models...    

Welcome TriSep to the Sterlitech Family!

Starting this week you can power your process filtration units and membrane test cells with the full line of flat sheet membranes from TriSep Corporation! These membrane elements are designed to provide premium efficiency in water treatment applications. 

What is especially great about this news is that now you can get these membranes in precut sizes to fit the CF042, Sepa CF, and HP4750 membrane test cell (individual sheets are available too)! Performing desalination and wastewater purification just got a lot easier…

See the full announcement here.