WaterVisions International, Inc. (WVI) recently was awarded two U.S. patents for a composite material generated from nontoxic U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved chemical components. The raw materials are readily available, and the manufacturing economics are extremely cost competitive. Initial laboratory testing of the raw materials used to construct the prototype composites have indicated that it is possible to simultaneously remove both As(III) and As(V) from drinking water. Notably, this advanced composite technology does not require an initial oxidation step to convert As(III) to As(V), and does not use ion exchange as a mechanism for sorption. This composite technology also can provide the chlorine reduction, pesticide removal, and "taste and odor" improvement functions of common activated carbon water filters. Initial testing of composites has indicated that cysts, bacteria, and viruses in drinking water also can be reduced significantly. The technology can easily be scaled, facilitating many different point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) devices, such as drinking water straws, gravity-fed water pitchers, and hand-pressurized filtration containers. Application in small- and large-scale public drinking water treatment plants is possible, and there are several simple and inexpensive options for product disposal. This 6-month project directly addresses the critical need for the development of technology that can remove/reduce disease-causing chemical and microbiological contaminants in drinking water. The primary objective of this Phase I effort is to perform extensive laboratory testing of WVI's arsenic removal technology to show that it can meet the stringent EPA and National Sanitation Foundation regulatory requirements. During Phase I, WVI also will complete the search for strategic partners that will assist in commercializing POU/POE products that can be substituted easily into standard drinking water filtration device housings that now use activated carbon or sediment filters. Supplemental
Keywords: small business, SBIR, arsenic, cysts, bacteria, viruses, drinking water, sorption, point-of-use device, point-of-entry device
