Portable Water Purifier

Portable water purifier is a device meant for people who must obtain drinking water from untreated sources such as rivers and lakes. There are many portable water purifier available for camping, hiking, and other travel in remote areas. Portable water purifier can be used to remove bad taste, chlorine, odors and other substances like mercury and lead.

Portable pump filters as water purifier are available with ceramic filters to remove pathogens. Some portable pump filters also using activated charcoal filters. These filters with activated charcoal will be able to remove most bacteria and protozoa, but it will not be able to kill viruses with less than 0.3 micrometer diameters. To complete the process of water purification, disinfection by chemicals or ultraviolet lights is required. On the market there are polymer and ceramic filters that incorporated iodine post-treatment to kill viruses and bacteria that cannot be filtered out, but these filters are not advisable due to the possible adverse health effects.

Even though the filter can do great job on removing bacteria and fungi from the drinking water when it is new, but used filters eventually can be colonized by the bacteria and fungi. Silver metal nanoparticles can be bond to the ceramic element and the activated charcoal to suppress the pathogens growth.

Water Purifier: Methods

Water purifier is a tool to battle against many dangerous substances in our water source like our tap water and well. These dangerous substances are including bacteria, heavy metals, and toxic chemicals. Being exposed to these dangerous substances can have bad effects and very serious in long term health conditions. Water purifier methods which are the most popular nowadays are reverse osmosis and carbon filtering.

The water purification methods that are still popular today are boiling water, chemicals usage, carbon filters, and reverse osmosis.

Boiling water and using chemicals for water treatments are consider traditional methods to purify water. These traditional methods are able to remove some water contaminants but the methods are still able to leave unhealthy substance since there is no filtration system to filter the water.

Boiling method needs to have the water heated long enough and hot enough to eliminate the microorganisms. At a near sea level, water needs to be boiled at least one minute. At higher places, three minutes of boiling is much recommended. Boiling water remains effective to eliminate protozoa and bacteria but there are still other microorganisms that could survive the boiling process. Boiling is considered a non efficient method of filtration and could not remove dangerous chemicals, if there's any, like chlorine. Boiled water should not be stored for long time as it may acquire other pathogens due to the effects of boiling. Water that is boiled does not have any residual disinfectant left.

Chemicals such as iodine and chlorine are the chemicals that are being used in water purification. Iodine and chlorine are cheap and easy to use. The use of chlorine can kill viruses, bacteria and protozoa but it could also leaves a bad taste and not recommended for water purification in long term. While chlorine can make the water looks clearer, it is poisonous and can create serious side effects for health if it is being used too much.

The traditional water treatment methods are proved to be ineffective and considered dangerous for health. There are new water purifier systems to deliver clean water without side effects. Methods which are popular nowadays are carbon filters, distillation and reverse osmosis. These are considered new methods of water purifier.

Carbon filters is using filter cartridges that is made from carbon for absorbing contaminants, including many toxic compounds like chlorine and microorganisms. In regions with many organic contamination, taste or smells, activated carbon is used as filter, passing through water. There are several ways to use carbon filters, mounting it to faucets or to integrate it with refrigerators are some of the ways. Carbon filters will not be leaving bad tastes and often being used with reverse osmosis in home water purifier.

Distillation is a process of producing water vapor by boiling the water. The water vapor will then be condensed as liquid after contacting a cool surface. Distillation could achieve 99.9% of pure water.

Reverse osmosis very effective to filter water impurities, including dissolved solids, nitrates, lead, turbidity, asbestos, radium and organic matter. It can even eliminate radioactive substances and chlorine. Reverse osmosis process works by giving pressure to a solution and to squeeze it through a membrane, leaving the contaminants trapped.

The History of Water Purifier

Water purifier history is actually tied to water history. Human civilizations always thrived and flourished near water source. Water has always been important and necessary for human to survive as water was used for drinking and also for the operational of agriculture. In history, human were much more concerned about the quantity of the water rather than the quality. They emphasized more on to the aesthetic problems of water such as the taste, smells, and appearance. Human slowly realized that its important to drink pure water and the journey to get pure water was started. Driven by the quest for pure drinking water, water purifier was invented after thousand of year’s journey.

The Egyptian and Sanskrit, ancient language writings, reveals that people during that time was keeping the water pure and free of germ. There is a Sanskrit ancient text mention of keeping clean water. The methods include boiling the water, heat it under the sun, or to dip a heated iron into water. The ancient text also mentions the water purification process, water filtration through sand and coarse gravel then to allow it to cool. Charcoal filtration method is also stated in other ancient Sanskrit text. Water treatment device also were painted in an Egyptian tomb, proving its existence since thousands of years ago.


Water Purifier also was mentioned by Hippocrates, the father of medicine. Hippocrates invented water purifier and it was called "Hippocrate's sleeve". Hippocrate's sleeve was a cloth bag and it was used as a water purifier to help removed hard substance and bad odor from the water.


Various methods were also developed by the Romans and Greek to treat water in such a way so they could control the taste of the water and smells.

According to Sir Francis Bacon if seawater is allowed to percolate through the sand, it can be purified. It was the method of desalination. Sand filtration experiment was being illustrated for the first time by an Italian physician, Lucas Antonius Portius. Written elaborately by Lucas Antonius Portius on his book "Soldier's Vade Mecum", the method of multiple sand filtration. The water filtration experiment was illustrated by making used of three pairs of sand filters.

Water Purifier that many people use now is using sand filtration method. In the 18th century, a Scientist in France, La Hire, proposed that every household should have a sand filter and a rainwater cistern to help the keep fresh pure water.

In the 19th century, Scotland, the first municipal water treatment plant was installed which consisted of sand and gravel filters. A similar pattern of the municipal water treatment then was installed in London. The sand filtration method had gone to further progress when the rapid sand filtration was developed later on in the United States of America in the late 1800. Water jets of back washes were being used to clean the filter media in the unit and to loosen the debris, a mechanical agitator were used. The water treatment capacity was enhanced, the smells and taste of water was also improved by using charcoal filtration for the water purifier.

The water cleanliness and the relation of it with health in the 19th century were being understood. Many other techniques of water purification by disinfecting water such as chlorination were also developed since then. Many more progress in water treatment was made after the industrial revolution of water purifier.