Leadership Rice Envision Grant Recipient Brings Ceramic Water Filters to Nicaragua

Rice University has recently awarded its Leadership Rice Envision Grants. Each grant provides the recipient with up to $2,500 to carry out a project that will enrich a community in some way. Thirteen students applied and six were selected. Applicants were accepted based on how well they lived up to the grant's four Es: Envision, Engage, Execute, and Embed.

Baker College senior Matt Wesley received an Envision Grant to fund a trip to Nicaragua during the winter break. Nicaraguans face outrageous sickness and mortality rates due to E. Coli-contaminated rivers. A lack of sanitation means that much of the Nicaraguans' water becomes contaminated by human and animal waste. Wesley used his Envision Grant to bring sixty ceramic water filters to the country distributing them to Nicaraguans in need. He hopes to provide more than 1,100 water filters eventually. The filters consist of a ceramic material that is connected to a 30L container, which provides a family with enough water for one day. The filter is made with ceramic and sawdust. As the ceramic is fired, the sawdust burns away, which creates porosity in the filter.

Green Water Filtration System Fit For a Museum

Manual Desrochers, a Montreal-based designer, has created this eye-catching (to say the least!) ceramic water filtration unit. It's crafted from porcelain and hand-blown glass. It's called the Ovopur.

As we've seen before, the egg-shape is popular with ceramic water filtration designers. The Ovopur uses a four-stage filtration system, running wa ter through reusable glass filters that are composed of activated carbon, a zinc/copper alloy, quartz, and porous ceramic beads. Its reservoir holds up to 11 liters (2.9 gallons), and it takes between 20 and 30 minutes to filter water completely. To read more about the Ovopur, visit Aquaovo.

How to select a ceramic water filter?

We write pretty frequently about technical and industrial ceramics, especially ceramic water filters. But do you have a good idea of how to select a water filter for yourself? REI has a great guide to selecting the right water filter for your personal needs, and it also includes some good information about ceramic water filters.

Ceramic: This is an effective, high-quality earthen material that can be cleaned many times before it needs a replacement. A ceramic cartridge captures most particles within .005 of an inch of its surface, so it's easy to brush away clogged pores and expose new ones. Cartridges themselves are fragile and require careful handling. Ceramic elements are the longest-lasting mediums and make a good choice for frequent backcountry visitors.

We shop at REI all the time (we're not sponsored or reimbursed by the company in any way) and love it. They have a great selection of outdoor/camping gear. And they're always helpful, so their publishing this guide is no big surprise. Check out the full guide for some good advice for water filters.

What is nanofiltration?

When you think of nanotechnology, you may think of an imperceptible, self-replicating microplague come to wipe out the human race (as in the Michael Crichton novel). Or you may consider the ever-decreasing size of technology. But a form of nanotechnology performs another function: Nanofiltration removes harmful particles from our drinking water every day.

Nanofiltration came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as an alternative to reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration. These forms of water filtration were not totally effective at removing particles of all sizes, however. As filter technology improved, ie, as more technical, advanced membranes were designed, smaller-sized grains were able to be filtered out. By the end of the 1980s, nanofiltration technology had developed such that it filtered out adulterants from water that other filtration technologies could not. This article on nanofiltration says, for instance,

The key difference between nanofiltration and reverse osmosis is that the latter retains monovalent salts (such as sodium chloride), whereas nanofiltration allows them to pass, and then retains divalent salts such as sodium sulphate. Robert Peterson, in his Foreword to Elsevier's Nanofiltration – principles and applications, describes reverse osmosis (especially in the water treatment business) as the main course, the steak perhaps, of a meal, whereas nanofiltration “is like the wine menu … an opportunity for creativity and exploration”.

The key to the development of nanofitraltion technology has been creating better and better filtration technologies. Nanofiltration is a liquid phase membrane separation process; it separates inorganic and organic substances from solution in a liquid. Nanofiltration separates these substances by running them through a membrane under pressure (a smaller amount of pressure than what would normally be used for reverse osmosis, as well). Great advances in nanofiltration generally occurs due to the creation of better membrane technologies. Presently, many nanofiltration systems use an inorganic material; ceramic is an especially popular material.

Ceramics have excellent corrosive-resitance and feature an excellent range of control over their porosity. Ceramic membranes have the advantage of being fully capable of functioning in very high or very low pH environments. Ceramic nanofiltration has industrial applications in the food and dairy sector, chemical processing, pulp and paper industry, and textiles. However, the predominant use of nanofiltration is of course in fresh, process, and waste water filtration.

A growing use of ceramics in nanofiltration is with field of nanofiber media. Nanofibers are made of synthetic materials that are spun into fibers whose diameters range from 10 μm to 100 nm. Advances in spinning techniques have enabled water filtration manufacturers to better utilize ceramic technology. Such ceramic nanofilters feature the high density and durability of ceramics with the capability of removing contaminants to below 0.1 μm. Using ceramics in water filtration technology has increased the robustness and safety of our water supply. And as manufacturers of technical ceramics find ways to decrease cost, we will only see ceramics’ influence in water filtration technology increase.

Surfer Dude Saves Indonesian Town

Here’s a great story that involves surfers, earthquakes, and ceramic water filters. Jon Rose, a Long Beach, CA resident whose father, Jack Rose, has a non-profit called Rain Catcher. The non-profit helps to educate villagers in Africa about rainwater collection and filtration. The son had just launched Waves for Water, which follows a similar idea and applies it to popular surf regions.

Jon Rose had been surfing in Indonesia when a massive 7.6-on-the-Richter Scale earthquake struck on 30 September. Luckily, the surfer had stowed some ceramic clay water filters in his surf bag. Through immediate, attentive effort, Mr. Rose was able to provide filtration for the region, which has a population of over 750,000 residents. The earthquake had wiped out their previous water supply.

Maybe we should change the filter more frequently?

At our company, we drink tap water. Besides saving money, drinking tap money has been shown time and again to be as clean--if not cleaner--than bottled water. However, we noticed that our water was starting to taste a little bit off, so we examined the water filter. A ha! Take a look at this.
That cylinder on the top is the one that's been in (over)use, the one on the bottom is the replacement filter. The filters are made of ceramic. Ceramic makes an excellent water filter due to its density and porosity, both of which can be easily controlled. This particular filter features Sterasyl ceramic, which has a highly consistent and controlled pore structure, which can remove a wide range of water borne contaminants. They don’t restrict the flow of the water, and they make the water taste great, which means like nothing at all!