 |
NanoCeram Technology |
|
At LivingWaters™ Engineered Water Treatment Systems, our claim to fame has always been our ability to bring proven, state-of-the-art technologies to the domestic water treatment market. When our friends at Argonide developed NanoCeram®, we knew we had a winner!
Many contaminants in water exist as small negatively charged particles. Some of these can be very dangerous. These include bacteria, virus, cell debris, lipids, phospholipids, proteins, amino acids, DNA and other natural organic matter. Others are economic and/or cosmetic problems. These include oils, oil emulsions, humic acids, and iron and silica colloids.
Until now, most of these particles remained largely unaffected by typical water treatment technologies. Many pass right through granular activated carbon beds, carbon blocks, and all forms of ceramic technology completely unaffected. Because reverse-osmosis membranes tend to "break-through" over time, even these cannot be trusted to remove dangerous pathogenic contaminants like bacteria and virus.
While capillary membranes like those used in Ster-O-Tap® are able to effectively remove particles as small as bacteria, they are subject to rapid clogging when exposed to water that has a large amount of colloidal silica or iron, and they are ineffective against virus.
NanoCeram® filters utilize a highly electropositive filter media that rapidly adsorbs particles - no matter how small. The active ingredient of the filter media is a nano alumina (AlOOH) fiber, only 2 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in diameter. These nano fibers are dispersed and adhere to glass fibers and appear as a fuzz on the microglass fiber. Since the nano alumina fibers are dispersed and fixed in place on the glass fibers, contaminants in solution have easy access to their charged surface. These composite fibers are subsequently formed into a pleated non-woven media by wet processing. While the completed filter looks like an ordinary pleated sediment filter, the capacity of this technology is revolutionary.
Sub-micron particles tend to be electronegative owing to the double layer affect. These electronegative particles are strongly attracted by the high zeta potential (~50 mv) of the NanoCeram® media. It's electropositive charge extends up to 1 micron from each nanoalumina fiber to effectively cover the entire 2 micron average pore space between each fiber. The result is that each NanoCeram electropositive water filter has a high capacity for particles as large as tens of microns or as small as a virus. Such is the nature of electropositive attraction that even with an average pore size of 2 - 3 microns the NanoCeram® Filter Cartridge exhibits an Absolute Rating of 0.2 microns; an Absolute Rating typically associated with ultrafiltration membranes. Yet NanoCeram® flow rates are hundreds of times greater than such membranes.
The bottom line: when NanoCeram® is used in multiple layers, it the first water treatment technology capable of retaining 99.9999% of micro-organisms (such as viruses, bacteria & protozoa which can include Cryptosporidium, Giardia Intestinalis, Legionella, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, E-coli, Mycobacteria, Aspergillus), endotoxins & DNA, as well as cell debris, proteins, colloids, natural organic matter, lipids, phospholipids, amino acids, oil, oil emulsions, all at flow rates hundreds of times greater than virus-rated ultrafiltration membranes. And the turbidity of the water coming through the NanoCeram media typically remains below 0.01 NTU (even when tested at 250 NTU) until the filter is exhausted.
We, at LivingWaters™ Engineered Water Treatment Systems, are proud to be the first manufacturer in the country to incorporate this revolutionary technology into our water treatment products. When combined with Ster-O-Tap®, KDF®, and catalytic activated carbon, it produces a technology so superior that no other water treatment system can compare. |
 |
|
|
