Effective, affordable water treatment for all is now “a real possibility”
Engineers working with Imperial College, London, have announced a breakthrough in water treatment that could eventually bring cheap, easily deployable water cleaning technology direct to the customer at the point of use.
Trevor Costello, supported by applied physicist Simon Bland, took the concept behind ozonation — a powerful but expensive form of water disinfection – and developed a test machine that is smaller, more efficient and cheaper to run than any device so far built.
The concept — running a charge of electricity through oxygen molecules, making them capable of oxidation that, in water, removes harmful bacteria — is well established. But oxidation molecules are unstable – especially at high temperatures.
Costello designed a plasma cell that works at low pressure and temperature, enabling greater control of oxidative molecules, so that they can more easily be applied to water cleaning.
Not only is Costello’s approach highly efficient but it vastly reduces the capital costs of existing ozonation systems, removing the need for heavy machinery. The result, it is hoped, will reduce potential outlay of over a thousand dollars by more than 90 per cent.
Replacing a large item of industrial plant with a briefcase-sized module is an impressive feat. But what happens next? “The next stage will be further prototypes,” says Costello, “followed, if feasible, by monitoring and field trials.”
So is he confident? Does this breakthrough in the lab have potential in the wider world?
It’s still early days,” Costello says. “But the fact that we have already proved that ozone can be created reliably for a fraction of the capital and operational cost once assumed to be the norm, implies that this is a project with enormous promise. Effective, affordable water treatment anywhere is now a real possibility”.