How Salt and a Car Battery Are Bringing Clean Water to the Developing World

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/11/17/clean-water-car-battery?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-11-17

According to the World Health Organization, of all the available water disinfectants, chlorine is “the most widely used, the most easily used, and the most affordable,” and it is also “highly effective against nearly all waterborne pathogens.” While there are continuing efforts to distribute chlorine to remote communities in the developing world, this new device allows people to easily make it themselves.

The SE200 Community Chlorine Maker mixes salt, water, and the electricity from a 12-volt battery to quickly create a chlorine solution that can purify 55 gallons of water. Users pour a spoonful of salt and water into a soup-can-size container that then plugs into a car or motorcycle battery via a set of small jumper cables. Salt naturally dissolves into sodium and chloride ions, and when the small electric charge is applied at the push of a button, the chloride ions oxidize into chlorine. The whole process takes just five minutes.

In 2008, the global health nonprofit PATH challenged outdoor equipment maker Mountain Safety Research to “find a way for 50 to 200 people, with no money and intermittent access to the supply chain, to have clean water,” said Laura McLaughlin, director of MSR’s Global Health division, in a company statement. MSR was already researching and developing chlorinator devices for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Marine Corps.

“This technology is what happens when a world-class global health organization and a 40-year-old outdoor company set out to solve a problem,” said McLaughlin recently, speaking at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, where the SE200 was touted as one of the best new inventions.

Before going on the market in May, the SE200 had already been field-tested in 10 countries, including Kenya, Ghana, India, and Haiti. The device isn’t cheap—about $200—but MSR claims it can handle the water-treatment needs of 200 people for five years.

[JonathanRackham]

1. MIOX

http://www.gizmag.com/go/2361/

A company called MIOX made portable devices for campers. The car battery (couple that with a solar charger) is excellent in that there is X100000 more power.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Unfortunately, chlorine, while literally green, is bad for the environment.

Chlorine reacts with many organic compounds to produce organochlorine compounds such as chloroform, methylene chloride, and alpha-chlorinated ketones and acids. Chloroform in particular is produced from methyl ketones, which are common in plant oils etc.

Chloroform has induced liver tumors in mice and kidney tumors in mice and rats.[5] The hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of chloroform is thought to be due largely to phosgene.[27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform#Safety

Peroxide-based disinfectants have been gradually displacing chlorine-based products in the West, because they have less impact on the environment.