Portable system provides clean drinking water

The development coincides with the announcement today of funding worth £3.3m for designs that can help improve access to water and sanitation in disaster zones.

The UWE system has been developed for use in remote or undeveloped areas of the world to provide clean water for disaster relief and humanitarian emergencies.

Prof Darren Reynolds

The research team have pumped water from the pond on the main university campus directly into a treatment system which uses a novel disinfectant and a membrane filtration system. From this, potable water that meets drinking water standards from source, can be produced quickly.

In conventional drinking water treatment systems chlorine is used for disinfection but the chemical can corrode membrane materials, which presents problems for the long-term deployment of portable treatment systems.

This system incorporates a novel disinfectant that has been developed at UWE, along with industry partners Bridge Biotechnology that does not have a corrosive impact on components over time but still kills any bacteria that may be present in the water.