Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A comparison of POU conventional water fi ltration technologies is
shown in Table 16.4. It compares the performance of the ceramic-based
fi lters with that of activated carbon, granular media. From all perspective
(effi ciency of decontamination, capacity and ease of use), activated carbon
has been found to be the best conventional household water treatment
method.
Table 16.5 provides a comparative chart of conventional UV treatment
and chemical treatment technologies. It has been observed that coagula-
tion-fl occulation outweighs UV-based and chemical-based water treatment
options in terms of type and range of contaminants that can be addressed.
However, it requires the involvement of trained manpower.
A comparison of POU nanotechnology-based water purifi cation tech-
nologies is given in Table 16.6. It is evident from the table that nanoparticle
embedded membranes have all the essential features that can be tuned to
address the specifi c contaminant. In addition, it is scalable and widely
deployable.
16.7.1 Sustainability of a water purifi cation technology
There are thousands of types of water fi lters that have the capability to
purify contaminated water. However, most fi lters are too expensive for the
nations with the greatest need for potable water. Technologically advanced
fi lters have no real application in countries without the capability to sustain
them, which is why more basic fi ltering methods are needed to truly have
an impact on the global clean water shortage. Such organizations as the UN
and WHO are currently pushing the water fi lter industry to develop sustain-
able solutions to empower many rural nations with the ability to fi lter their
own water in cheaper, more environmentally friendly ways. These sustain-
able technologies are innovative, simple, and incorporate combinations of
basic science and local materials to create usable and effi cient fi lters. Sus-
tainable, or appropriate, technology is defi ned as, 'Technology that can be
made at an affordable price by ordinary people using local materials to do
useful work in ways that do the least possible harm to both human society
and the environment' (Cunningham
et al.
, 1999).
The following guidelines are suggested based on an evaluation of the
sustainable technology defi nition, the ethical standards, and information
from sustainable development of technologies (Skye McAllister, 2005). It
is important to keep in mind that these steps are to be used in addition to
traditional engineering standards and ethics.
limit non-renewable energy consumption
lessen environmental impact
readily available, easy to manufacture materials
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