Brackish Water

How does one set up an emergency water purification system that uses minimum power to work with brackish water after a PS? What does one need to know? What strategy does one use to pull together the components in a short period of time? How can it all be made cost effective so the common man can afford it? How much preparation is needed? These and more questions will be attempted to be addressed in the detailed PDF File. Distillation is an excellent method of producing good water and is highly recommended. It is very expensive in terms of the amount of energy used. Distillation was well covered earlier. Separation by freezing will not be covered in this report. Portable hand operated methods to the extent they are usefully have been previously covered. What will be covered now are ways of filtering and purifying water using about 200 to 400 times less energy than distillation for use at a base site. Many may not have the energy available for doing distillation. So alternatives become appropriate. A good energy efficient brackish water purification system will have the following minimum components.

• Container(s) to collect and hold rain or run off water (plastic garbage cans, hole in ground lined with plastic, 55 gallon tanks, etc)
• Strong magnet to attract iron and other ferromagnetic metals and pull them out of solution.
• Ozone bubbled through the water to kill pathogens and reduce heavy metals.
• Settling tank to separate oil and dirt. Oil floats to top and runs out an over flow. Dirt and heavy particles settle on the bottom of the tank. Good water is drawn out from in-between.
• Gradient particle filters down to about .5 micron. Gradient mesh cloths could be stuffed into a 4" pipe as one example. A sand filter or a commercial filter element could be used.
• Method of moving water (gravity, electric pump or hand pump)
• Way to precipitate small or dissolved unwanted heavy metals. (water softeners, ion exchange, Ozone, and Magnets)
• Way to bring the pH back in range if very different from neutral especially if acid. (if acid add ashes, or use Ozone)
• Way to remove very-very small particles out of the water. (ceramic filters, reverse osmosis, DI demineralization resins filters, and distillation)
• Way to remove hydro carbons (oil etc) and bad smells. A Carbon filter elements, or could be as simple as a plastic garbage can full of crushed charcoal that the water is run slowly though. Ozone bubbled through water will also remove smells.
• Sterilization or killing of parasitic organisms like bacteria, viruses, etc (passed by UV-light source, or add an item like chlorine, iodine, colloidal silver, Grape fruit seed extract or bubbling ozone gas through the water).
• Container to collect the output, so the process can be done slowly or at its own best most efficient rate yet water can be easily obtained from it.

A block diagram of the major functional components would look like:

Offered by Mike.