WO2008041962A1

WO2008041962A1 - Apparatus to facilitate simple sunlight driven water purification

Info

Publication number: WO2008041962A1
Application number: PCT/US2006/015053
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yovette Mumford
Original assignee: Markey, Garron
Priority date: 2005-04-18
Filing date: 2006-04-17
Publication date: 2008-04-10

Abstract

A filtering bottle has a straw-like mouth spout. The filter is made of crushed crystal rocks and/or glass fibers. The bottle contains Mylar reflective backing and is of transparent plastic or glass. It contains a color-coded biosensor strip to signal level of contaminants.

Description

Utility Patent Application for "Apparatus to facilitate simple sunlight driven water purification"using biostrips to indicate real-time safety for consumption.

Background

Each year hundreds of thousands of humans die from water borne pathogens. This is mostly but not only a third world problem. It becomes a problem during most disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and so forth wherever they occur. There is a simple and effective solution that can save lives by purifying the water using natural sunlight. Here is the state-of-the art procedure;

1. Fill a plastic or glass bottle about % full of water. If the water is not clear, it is best to filter it through something. PET (PolyEthylene Terephtalate) is preferred for bottle plastic because it contains less UV-stabilizer than PVC (PolyVinylChloride) bottles and thus absorb less UV. Most but not all glass is UV transparent. Of course, bottles that are not very thick are preferred.

2. Fill and cap the bottle tightly.

3. Shake the bottle vigorously for 20 seconds. This mixes in the air (It is the oxygen that counts. It will be activated by the sunlight to kill the biological pathogens.)

4. Expose the bottle to sunlight - preferably placing it in corrugate metal (so some sunlight that penetrates the bottle will be reflected back giving it a second chance to help).

5. Expose to direct sunlight (e.g. by placing it on a south-facing roof) all day - at least six hours. On a cloudy day, it may take two days to disinfect.

6. The water is then free of dangerous biological pathogens.

This treats the contaminated water through two synergetic mechanisms: Radiation in the spectrum of UV-A (wavelength 320-400nm) and increased water temperature. If the water temperatures rises above 50⁰C, the disinfection process is three times faster than at ambient.

Problems with this simple life-saving approach

The "recipe" above contains so many variables that it is hard for users to know whether they have done it right or not. The needed materials may not be at hand.

In addition, people tend to be suspicious of "low tech" solutions. Surely it requires "high tech" to perform such an important task.

Purpose of this Invention

Produce a low-cost bottle optimized for this task that also contains an indicator of when the water is safe to drink. This should improve both the performance and the acceptance of this water purification method.

Bottle

The bottle could be made of an appropriate glass or of PET or of any other UV-transparent material.

It should come with a filter for straining out particles. That could be cloth glass fibers or a filter designed for some other use. Alternatively, the filter could be on a dispenser from which water is pored into the bottle.

The bottle shape must reflect the fact that UV is easily scattered by particles and even absorbed by water. So wide thin, preferably around 5 cm. bottles are preferred. The back of the bottle can be reflective - metalized, backed by metallic, any shiny material or synthetic crystal blend material, holographic film blended with a PolyEthylene Terephtalate or any other Ultraviolent light attracting and reflective materials.

Testing

It is important to give users a clear indication of when the water is safe to drink. Besides the obvious advantage of building in such a test there is a less obvious advantage: Bottles with built in test will seem more high tech and thus achieve greater acceptance among users.

We can distinguish two types of tests — indirect and direct. Indirect tests tell users whether the exposure has been sufficient to kill germs. Direct tests test for some representative organism whose death would allow us to infer that all or most dangerous organisms had also been killed. The analogy of the canary in the mine is appropriate.

The simplest built-in indirect test would be encapsulated liquid crystal temperature indicators. Instructions could be as simple as "blue for four hours" or "red for 10 hours."

Direct indicators are more difficult. Other attached material suggests several approaches. Bacteria-indicating strips are commercially available, but are not really built in. We claim a posteriori testing,

Filtering Claims Structure

1) Mouth sprout is attached to the Hd filter system described in claim (2) with a suction filter system. As one sucks the water from the bottle filtering occurs before entering the mouth. This filter is made of crushed crystal rocks that line the straw like mouth sprout. When one wants to drink the water in the bottle he pulls the sprout out toward him. When he wants to save the water he pushes the sprout back down towards the filter cap of the bottle for closure. If one wants to siple pore the water he needs only to twist the open sprout clockwise on the bottle pouring cap.

2) A filter is placed over the bottle's opening or in the poring region of the bottle or large container. There are several commercial sources of glass fiber filters that could be incorporated into a lid filter.

3) Mylar backing on or in plastic or glass bottle to assist in the collection of Ultraviolent light and heat for purification process.

Preferred Embodiment

UV-transparent plastic

Claims

Not shown but present is a metalized Mylar backing.We fill from a filtered dispenser.Bottle filter Claim structureWe claim a "high-tech" low-cost bottle to allow users to purify water-using sunlight. The system is simple and easy to operate. It includes

1. A UV transparent bottle (plastic or glass)and or enhanced Holographic blended glass or plastic bottled that concentrate the capture of the Ultravoilent light from the sunlight.

2. Means to filter out gross sediment from the water placed into said bottle - either attachable to the bottle opening or totally separate as might be part of a water dispenser

3. A bottle cap or other tight closure mechanism

4. A reflective backing - preferably built in but alternatively part of a "rack" for holding said bottles.

5. Built in (preferably) or external testing for purification.

6. Reduce the amount of time it takes to purify the water in the bottle for human consumption. Presently it takes 8 hours to 48 hours to purify. This new apparatus looks promising to reduce this to a one hour to a few minutes.

Signaling bio-strip claim structure

1) A color coded strip of biosensor would be attached and or blended into the bottle design.

2) This biosensor would change colors depending upon the level o contaminates still present in the bottled water. 3) Braille like bubbles in the strip that is always submerged in the water at the bottom of the water bottle would be a sensor and report by color code changes, the purification status of the water.

The materials used can be holographic film, nanotechnology composites and infrastructure networks. The biostip can include Braille like features that will be nanotubes that interconnect in such a way as to relay sensing of organic activity and biochemistry diagnostics. Said composition of patterns on Holographic film and or nanotude biofluidic system will also have signaling capability. This micro fluidic system will have the capability signaling via graphs or color codes if fluid is not made up of the allowable tolerances that are legal or acceptable for consumption or considered functional for a specific environment. The nanotubes that will collect sample of molecules and registering identification via holographic or other pattern recognition of biomarkers for specific as many as 32 different of the DNA sequence composite at a time. Said molecules will flow through or over the top of film or Braille bumps with microscopic holes that flow the molecules through sensing nanotubes.

This micro fluidic system has the capabilities of signaling either as simple as a designated color codes if fluid is not the desired composition and/or contaminated with a foreign chemistry or toxin and be able to be scanned via external instrumentation in order to allow a diagnostic device to read the composition from solution for diagnostic of DNA, protein or genome pattern recognition. The bios trip ™ will incorporate a micro fluidic chip made of either silicone on some other substance that will allow for color coding and any other reliable commercial substance, substrate, plastic, natural elements melded into a plastic or glass or metal material.

The simple commercial idea this invention is meant to address is the following:

A consumer may wonder if the bottle of water he or she is about to consume is safe to drink. They will be able to shake the bottle of water and look at the bottom or sides of the bottle for a color code indicator. If in fact the biostrip has diagnosed foreign substances in the water it will immediately turn the strip a warning color and if it is safe to drink it will either remain clear or another designated color.

If the color is (say RED) meaning an alarm should be designated. This bottle of water can be taken to a lab with being opened and the strip can be scanned.

All notes and invention theory compiled. By Garron Markey and Yovette

Mumford

July 2004 to April 06