Brief Description

The entire process involves (1) Preparation of polymer casting solution and hollow-fibre ultrafiltration membrane using spinning machine & (2) making a device of reusable water purifying bottle for on-spot purification of turbid, muddy & biological contaminated water to potable water. The hollow-fibre membrane making involves mostly locally available commercial grade chemicals. The device is capable of removing turbidity of water from > 100 NTU to less than 1 NTU and microbial removal with respect to E. coli by 4 log reduction and have purified water output of 200 ml in 5minutes in offline-mode. The water output is900-1000ml in 2minutes in online-mode when connected to a water tap (municipality water with almost no turbidity) at feed pressure of around 1 bar.

All the process parameters are optimized in the laboratory and reproducible hollow fibre membranes are tested in single fibre testing set-up. Later, fibres are used to make membrane cartridges and fitted in a device of reusable water purifying bottle for on-spot purification of water to potable water with same performance reproducibility.

The water purifying bottle produces complete sterile drinkable solution (free of all biological contamination) with full turbidity removal. In online mode, directly it can be connected with the tap and get purified water depends on the tap water pressure. In off-line mode, a pressure assisted system is in-built for faster output. It is easy to handle, assembling and can operate with replaceable membrane cartridges. It is reusable by cleaning membrane cartridge. The technology would help in achieving the objective of on-spot purification of turbid, muddy & biological contaminated water to potable water free from suspended solids, colloids, colour, odour and organics.

This technology can be applied for preparation of safe, sterile drinkable water from any turbid &biological contaminated water sources. It can be used at remote locations where natural water sources are contaminated.

In-house developed hollow-fibre ultrafiltration membranes are used for preparation of membrane cartridges to fit in a hand-held reusable water purifying bottle. The final product prepared using this technology is capable of removing turbidity of water from > 100 NTU to less than 1 NTU and microbial removal with respect to E. coli by 4 log reduction and have purified water output of 200 ml in 5minutes in offline-mode & 900-1000ml in 2 minutes in online-mode when connected to a water tap (municipality water with almost no turbidity). The areas of application include preparation of safe, sterile potable water free of suspended solids, colloids, colour, odour and organics from polluted water sources during disaster management conditions like Floods, Cyclone, Tsunami etc. or in remote areas/villages where external energy driven system and infrastructure support is not available.

Hollow fiber spinning facility requires dust free environment with humidity control. In addition, membrane preparation requires automated machine for which conceptual process design is the part of Technology document but engineering design and fabrication of machines is under the scope of the licensee.