LifeStraw personal water filter

Published on Jan 7, 2014
Krik of Black Owl Outdoors shows you the LifeStraw personal water filter. Light, compact and inexpensive; the LifeStraw is perfect for camping, hiking, and backpacking.

Published on Jun 5, 2013
See the LIFESAVER bottle in action with Michael Pritchard, drinking directly from the river on the move!

http://www.lifesaversystems.com/

Gravity-Driven Membrane (GDM) technology

Inadequate access to microbiologically safe drinking water continuously threatens the health and well-being of more than a billion people, primarily in developing countries. In many areas worldwide the central water infrastructure is not available at all, or not reliable, leading to unsafe water at the tap. In such cases, decentralized water treatment can be used.

Ultrafiltration is an effective technology to treat water and in principle can be applied on a decentralized scale. Most ultrafiltration membranes have pores which are smaller than the size of bacteria and viruses. Thus, water filtered through these membranes is microbiologically safe.

During dead-end ultrafiltrtion all macro- and microorganisms, particles and colloids accumulate on the membrne surface and a fouling layer is formed. Backflushing or chemical cleaning are usually used during conventional ultrafiltration to remove fouling layer. This prevents the membrane from clogging, which is expected to occur during filtration on a long term. However, backflushing or cleaning results in complex and maintenance-intensive systems, which are difficult to operate on a long term in developing countries.