Development of a mobile water maker, a sustainable way to produce safe drinking water in developing countries

Moreover, there is a growing demand for a simple, low capacity drinking water treatment used by local people in developing countries to reduce mortality caused by water born diseases. To solve this problem a small portable water treatment unit with a production capacity of approximately 500 L/day was developed. The unit can operate without the use of external electricity/pumps/generators in order to operate completely independent. The mobile water treatment unit uses tubular ceramic membranes in combination with an anodic oxidation process, powered by a solar power panel. The membranes are cleaned by simple flushing without the use of chemicals and this enables a sustainable production of safe drinking water on every location in the world without replacing polluted filter cartridges. Laboratory tests with several kinds of surface water and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) showed a very stable production and gave very good results in the removal of sediments, colloidal material, bacteria and viruses.